Separate Yourself

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 through 11. It's on page 151 and 152 in your pew

Bibles. Please stand and honor God's word. When the

Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the

Hittites, the Gergeshites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the

Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, and when the Lord your

God gives them over to you and you defeat them, you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons, taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me.

To serve other gods, then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them.

You shall break down their altars and dash to pieces their pillars, and chop down their ashram and burn their carved images with fire.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for the treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the

Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the land of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him, and keeps his commandments to a thousand generations, and repays to the face of those who hate him by destroying them.

He will not be slack with the one who hates him. He will pay him to his face. You shall, therefore, be careful to do the commandments and all the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

New Testament scripture reading is Revelation 18, verses 1 through 4.

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.

And he called out with a mighty voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.

For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.

You may be seated. There's one more announcement.

Today, after we eat and enjoy a fellowship meal together, we will be going to DeWolf and Marion.

So if you're able to do that and minister to the people there with song and worship, consider going with us.

Again, that will be after we eat this afternoon going to DeWolf. With that said, though, open your

Bibles to Ephesians 5, please, to the book of Ephesians 5.

Pastor Tim, we can be praying for him as well as he's preaching in Arlington this

Lord's Day. We'll be in Ephesians 5, continuing our study in this book.

Let me read from verses 3 to 14. Chapter 5, let's read from verse 1 to verse 14 of Ephesians.

Therefore, be imitators of God, as 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, it must not be even named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are all 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, but now you are light in the

Lord. So walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, right and true.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, the scriptures say, awake,

O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Let us pray. O God in heaven, we're in desperate need of your sweet and wonderful grace this morning.

God in heaven, your law and who you are has been revealed to us and all that's around us, and we can't help but see and understand just how much we fall short of your glory.

But O God in heaven, what a wonderful thing it is to look at your special revelation, to look at your scriptures and see the story of Jesus Christ our

Lord. He in kindness came down to earth and died and rose again, and he gives us the power to imitate you.

No longer being law breakers, but law fulfillers through his grace and mercies and blood and resurrection.

O God in heaven, let us not turn a blind eye to this Savior of the world. Let us not treat this as something that is common, but let us marvel at the mercies found in our

Lord. Let us have hearts filled with worship that you would be so kind to sinners like us.

O God in heaven, the people before me that have not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ our Savior, O Lord, may you, even in this message, cause them to be overwhelmed by their breaking of your standard and cause them to see their only hope is found in following the

Lord Jesus Christ. God, would you help us with this this morning? Would you be kind to a people that don't deserve it, but yet because of your grace you freely give it?

O Lord in heaven, may we be ready for what you give through your spirit by your promise. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

Amen. So we are in now, Ephesians 5.

If you remember, as we looked at it, we saw that we can be imitators of God because of what he has done for us in Jesus Christ.

That because Jesus Christ has forgiven us of our sins by his death and resurrection, we can, by that power, imitate

God in this life that we have to live. And so we have the land of the imperatives opened up to us, the commands of Jesus our

Lord, and we can imitate him in that land because of what he has done for us on the cross, in the resurrection, his forgiveness he's provided for us.

And we have seen that he not only provides us the power to do so of imitating him, but he also leads by example, that by his example we are to forgive others and have sacrificial love for one another.

But if you remember last week, we talked about kind of the opposite of sacrificial love, and that is sexual immorality.

If you remember, we talked about sexual immorality is a perversion of sexual desire that God has given us, a perversion of it to a selfish end.

So instead of having a selfless love for others, we have a selfish love for ourselves in which we do not imitate

God, but we imitate the kingdom of darkness. And so the question I want to ask ourselves as we continue with this theme in our head, going in chapter 5, is what do you do when you are faced with a terribly large and difficult temptation to not imitate

God? We are in this land of imperatives that Christ has opened up for us, but what do you do,

O Christian, when you're in the land of imperatives opened up for you to enjoy, but what you have instead before you is a large temptation to not imitate

God? In fact, it's so large that you can't see around it. You can't see above it. All you see is a temptation to sin against your

Lord instead of enjoy the land of the imperatives. What do you do, beloved, when you're faced with a temptation to not imitate your

God? See, if you're passive with that question, if you think, well,

I never really thought about that, I can guarantee you when you face that temptation, it runs over you like a truck.

You cannot hope to get over that temptation if you are not conscientiously thinking, how do

I face such terrible temptations to not imitate God when He's given me everything in Christ in this land before me?

If you're not thinking, how do I face these temptations? You will not overcome them, and they will grab you, and they will pull you, and if you're not careful, then it can pull you even to death.

And so here we have in Ephesians 5, verses 5 to 10, we have Paul, I think, helps us with this question of what do we do when temptations are before us.

He'll tell us here as we see these verses, he'll tell us why temptations happen to begin with. He'll tell us the proper perspective we need in order to not succumb to these temptations.

We need proper perspective so it's not right there in front of our face. And then he'll show us, he'll tell us in the

Word, and with these things working, proper perspective, we can then separate ourselves from sin, separate ourselves from temptation, even the strongest of ones like sexual immorality.

And so let's look at why do temptations happen. And if we're looking at, again, verses 5 and 6, we can kind of put them up together like this, because he's saying the same thing, they're like a mirror verse.

There's three things being said in each verse, and they're the same things being said. So let's kind of grab hold of both of them as we go.

Look at verse 5, he says, and again, keep in your mind, this is why temptations happen.

And look at verse 5, he says, And so one thing we can say as we're looking at sexual sin, as we're looking at temptations of sin, as we're looking at this great temptation to not imitate

God, we can be sure of this, that we are surely lying to ourselves.

Because in that temptation, you've all been there. You know what it's like. You think, oh, this is certainly the right direction.

It feels far too good to not be. And what Paul is saying here is you can be sure of this, and don't let anyone give you empty words like that temptation, that sin is the proper direction to go.

In fact, it is so sure that that sin and temptation is not the proper way to go. It's a sure reality that you are not to go to that temptation, to that sin.

In fact, anyone who tells you otherwise is giving you empty words, he says, in verse 6.

It's almost like as if I were to tell you this heat wave that we're having. I think we're at the end of it. If I were to tell you, hey, listen, the best thing for you to do is to go home, turn on your furnace, and don't drink water, and just sit on your couch.

That is the best thing for you to do in this heat wave. That's what you should do. That's not what you should do, but it's as if I were to say that.

What would you say? You'd be like, what are you talking about? That's foolish talk. You would surely die in short order if it's 100 degrees out and you have your furnace running full blast and not drinking any water.

You would think that's empty talk. That's foolishness. That's silly. That is certainly not the case.

This is what Paul is saying. It's this for sure thing that the temptation that's before you is not the proper direction to go.

Just as sure as it is not the proper thing to do to turn on your furnace in the middle of the heat wave and sit in your house.

So the question then you need to ask is, okay, if that's the same thing, why does it seem so right to go to the temptation?

Surely as I tell you that turn on your furnace in the heat wave, you're telling me, no, that's foolishness. That's silly.

That's empty talk. It's easy to see that. I'm not going to do that. Why would I do that? But why is temptation to sin is equally just as wrong?

Why is it like, I think I'm going to go there though. It's just as wrong. I think

I'm going to go there though. Why does it operate that way? Well, why does temptation come across that way? Well, let me then keep on going with this.

What if I told you or what if because of the corruption of the flesh, it felt good to you to have hot air blasting on you when you're hot?

What if it just for some reason, the corruption of the flesh, that's just how it was in our anatomy because of sin. It just felt good to sit down with furnace running on you, hot air while you're in a hundred degree weather.

It just felt so good. In fact, water tasted terrible in that situation. And when I told you, go home, turn on your furnace in the heat wave and don't drink water, all of a sudden you'd be like, well, that sounds all right.

I might do something like that because it feels good. But thanks be to God, with our physical makeup, it feels terrible.

So it's easy for us to say, no, that's ridiculous. But beloved, sin operates differently.

Sin is just as wrong. It's just as destructive. It's just as filled with death. But yet it plays on our fallenness to where it's like, oh, but it kind of feels kind of good.

And so then you can be very easily, what's the word that starts with a

D here? Deceived. And this is how it happens. Look again at verse 6. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words.

If they're empty words, how can we be deceived? Because the falseness attaches to our proneness to be deceived because it feels so good.

To be deceived means to believe in untruth. Why in the world would we believe in untruth? That sin is good for us.

Because it feels good to our flesh. And so why do these temptations happen?

Why do they come and they're huge right before us? It's because they are empty. They are false.

But yet they deceive us because they attach to our desires of the flesh. That's why they happen.

This is what you need to tell yourself when you face that temptation. Is that the truth is that this is absolute falsehood.

I know it is. But it just feels good to my flesh. But I know that it is emptiness. It's empty words to think I should go here.

It is not right. It is not true. But yet because it's pulling on my desires of the flesh, which is broken in sin, it looks good despite the fact that it's death.

This is what you've got to tell yourself. I've just seen this huge thing before you. This huge temptation to sin.

You're deceived. That's why it looks good. And it's attaching itself to your flesh. Look at why this deception happens though.

Look again at verse 5. He says, You may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

So you see the deception there. In our deception we can think that if I have an idol before me, it will cause me to inherit the kingdom of God.

We all want to inherit the things of the kingdom of God. To inherit something is to receive its blessings. We all want the inheritance of the kingdom of God.

And the deception is if I have an idol here, if I have an idol right here and I grab hold of it, it's going to give me that inheritance.

That's the lie that he says. Don't believe it. That is not true. Any word true. That's a deception. That's what Paul's saying.

You can be sure of this, that that idol will not give you the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Let me kind of support that there.

Look at, let me follow my notes here. What is the nature of the kingdom of God?

Look at Psalm 16, verse 11. Look at Psalm 16, verse 11. This is the inheritance that we can get from the kingdom of God.

And it's going to sound very similar to what we all want, even unbelievers want. Look at Psalm 16, verse 11.

David says, You make, that is God, notice he's not talking to an idol here.

Put that in your brain. He says, Notice it's not the presence of an idol.

And at your right hand, God, not an idol, are pleasures forevermore. You see those three words there?

That everyone wants? You see those three words? Life, joy, pleasures?

Isn't that what everyone's always seeking whenever they're trying to find it in an idol? An idol is a creaturely thing that you're treating as a god, by the way.

Right? Isn't everyone searching for life, joy, and pleasures? And the deception that Paul is saying is that we would try to get those things that we can only get from God and his kingdom as an inheritance from that kingdom in an idol instead.

That's the deception. That we could get all those things from an idol and not from God.

In fact, it's ironic that we would say I can get the kingdom of God but not through God.

I can get these things that only God can actually provide but I can get it in an idol instead. That I can receive

God's kingdom without God. What a deception and a lie that is. But yet, everyone on this green earth is seeking for life, joy, and pleasures.

Every single one of them. You, old Christian, you're pursuing that too. And what a lie it is that we could say, and I can get that from sin.

I can get that from an idol. I can get that separated from God. It is, what Paul says, the truth is that those people, that action will not give you the kingdom.

It won't give you pleasures. It won't give you joy. It tells you it will.

It says it's a good, cheap substitute. But Paul says, be sure this don't be deceived with empty words.

It cannot. You will lie to yourself with that more than anyone. You will give you those empty words more than anyone.

That's why that temptation is so huge in the land of the imperatives. It's telling you, you can have joy, pleasure, the things of the kingdom if you just simply follow this sin, this idolatry.

It is so massive and big. It's right before you. You can't help but you just want to grab hold of it. Paul is saying here that that is deception.

That is why it's so huge. That's why it's so big before you. It's because it is deceiving you in that way.

See, what we need here, in that moment, when we're in that moment there, that's the situation.

And we all, every one of you, if you guys are paying attention to your own life, you know which temptations are this big in front of you.

Every one of you right now can think of that in your brain. Every one of you has that in your own different area of life, in your own maturity in Christ, or outside of Christ.

You all have those things that especially pull at your desires of the flesh here. And so what we need in this moment, right, we understand the bigness, how big it is.

We need proper perspective. We need to see the situation clearly. You know, when

I was lost in the Amazon for three days, the first thing that saved my life was getting proper perspective to see things right.

I was never lost in the Amazon. I'm just joking. I would have died. But every movie I've ever seen, right, they like to get up and get elevated to see things clearly, right?

And that makes sense to me. I don't know. Maybe you shouldn't leave your spot. I don't know. So if you ever lost in the Amazon, don't, you know,

I'm not an authority here. But it does make sense that if you want to, when you're lost, right, when you have something just right there in the jungles and leaves and everything, that you would want to get elevated, get a proper perspective to see things more clearly, to see if there's a road, to see if there's a river that you can follow, right, to get proper perspective.

And so what Paul does here, as we have that sin before us, he then grabs hold of us and he brings us 500 feet in the air to give us a better perspective.

So that that temptation of sin isn't right in front of your face, but then you can actually see, ah, I see what's going on here.

And what is that perspective? Well, we already kind of said it. He said in verse five, he says, those who practice such things will not receive the kingdom of Christ.

They will not inherit it. So although that temptation of sin looks like it's gonna do something good for you, you will not get what you think you will get from that sin.

And so what Paul's doing, he's bringing you up here and he's saying, you see the kingdom of Christ? Yeah, that's not it.

That's not it. He's giving you that perspective. So when you come back down, you're like, oh yeah, that's not nearly as enjoyable as I thought it was.

Or he says in verse six, he says, he says that it is because of these things, you see that in verse six, that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

You see what he's saying there? You will get the very opposite of the kingdom with that temptation. Instead of inheriting the good things from the

Lord, you will get the very opposite, the wrath of God instead. And so what a perspective that is when you have that sin in front of you to also see, oh, wait a minute, that thing right there, that leads to wrath, not pleasures, not joy, not life, it leads to wrath.

That's what we need desperately in that moment. We need proper perspective. We need to see what that thing really is, and that's what

Paul has given here, the proper perspective of sexual immorality or having an idol, whatever that may be, that is actually going to lead to wrath, not the inheritance of the kingdom.

And so the very nature of the kingdom, the very nature, the perspective we have here is that the kingdom, that God, that pleasures, it always comes from separation from those sins, from separating yourself from these things, not going after these things.

And so what Paul here is saying is that there needs to be separation, that the wrath of God is on those people, but the inheritance of the kingdom is on something else.

In fact, we see separation involved with the kingdom. Look at Matthew 25. Let's flip to Matthew 25.

And we see that separation perspective, how we need to separate and not go towards. We need to separate from those things.

Look at Matthew 25, verse 31. The nature of receiving the kingdom versus the nature of receiving the wrath and the separation therein.

Matthew 25, verse 31. Jesus says, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then

He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.

So the inheritance of the kingdom is found at the right hand of God in which He says, Come. Does that sound similar to Psalm 1611?

At your right hands are pleasures forevermore. Joy and life is found at the right hand of God. It's not a coincidence here that in order we see

Jesus is creating that separation between the sheep and the goats. And He says, The sheep on My right, they're the ones who will inherit the kingdom in the end.

They will be separated from the goats at the end. There's separation here.

He says in verse 35, For I was hungry, and you gave Me food. I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink.

I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me. I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was in prison, and you came to Me.

So notice how, you know, our works there matter to Jesus, doesn't it? You ever notice that?

At the judgment, when there's separation, what separates us is the fact that there are those who practice righteousness and those who practice wickedness, right?

And so Jesus says, The one on My right who inherits the kingdom, they're the ones who actually practice righteousness.

But He says in verse 37, Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

In verse 38, He says, And when did we see a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?

In verse 39, And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these,

My brothers, church, you did it to Me. But then He'll say to those on His left,

He says, Depart from Me, you curse into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and the angels. For I was hungry, and you gave

Me no food. I was thirsty, you gave Me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not welcome Me. Naked, and you did not clothe

Me. Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. And then they'll answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?

And then He'll answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. And so we can see the inheritance of the kingdom on the right versus the wrath reserved on the left.

And we see the separation between the two. And so that temptation that's before us, we know the end game of what's happening here.

That those who make a practice of these sins that are established before us, saying it'll give us everything, we know the end game is of a separation of wrath and those who do not practice such things of righteousness.

We see that there's separation waiting towards the end of those who practice these things before us. And so that encourages us to have that perspective to separate from it in the moment.

In fact, if you look again at the language back in Ephesians five, look at that language again.

It's not just talking about the end separation, but there's a certain separation that Paul's detailing now.

If you look at the language here, he says that those who practice such things, in verse five, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ.

It's like a present thing, right? It's not just a will have no inheritance. Those who make a practice of that, they have no inheritance right now.

It's current. It's not just a long -term thing. It's right now they don't have the inheritance. Or like in verse six, it's the same thing, the parallel verse.

He says that those who practice such things, because of these things, in verse six, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

That word is future for sure, but it also has like a present tense reality. It kind of has both going on.

And so that's another thing that gives us perspective. As we're knowing, as we're understanding, as people of Christ, as we know that it is our desire, what the true desires that we have as humans is that we would have pleasures and joy and life from God and his kingdom.

It begins today in what I do. It's not just something I gotta grit through and just wait to the end in which there'll be the separation.

The separation between these two things happens today. Those who practice these sins, they have no inheritance today.

Those who practice these, or those who do not practice those things right now, they have an inheritance today. That is what

I want today. So as we kind of grab hold of these things, that big reality, that sin before us of idolatry, as we see it before us, all of a sudden it becomes much smaller as we have proper perspective.

It's not as alluring as I thought it was. It's not as tempting as I thought it was. There should be separation from these things because of the nature, the perspective of the kingdom of God.

It promotes separation from these things. And this is exactly what he concludes in verse seven of Ephesians five.

Therefore, with this in mind, do not become partners with them.

Do not become partners associated with the sins that are coming upon, or the sins that the people of disobedience do, that wrath is coming upon them.

Do not be partners with them. Separate yourselves from them. As you see the end, and as you see what's happening now, that wrath is reserved for them at present even, separate yourself from that kind of activity.

That's exactly what you need to tell yourself as you're looking at that sin that looks so tempting. I am called to not participate or be in partnership with the kingdom of darkness as it's displayed before me there.

I see what it is, and I am not to partner with that. We get the same kind of language.

Do not partner with them. We see the same kind of language in Revelation 18. We read it earlier. But in Revelation 18, it's the same language.

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven and having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory, and he called out with a mighty voice,

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, the kingdom of darkness, the wicked nature of sin, the things in which the wrath of God is coming down upon.

Fallen is Babylon. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast, for all the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.

It is a system built off of idolatry, a system built not off the kingdom of God, but its own kingdom of Satan of idolatry.

The luxurious living on the earth is everything to those who have idols. The sexual immorality becomes everything to feed the sensual desires, but the call of the kingdom is separation, in which we see in verse four,

I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.

So once more, as you see that huge temptation before you, you know that the call of the kingdom is to separate yourself from such activities of Satan and to leave such activities, for it is the very nature, it's the wrath of God is coming upon those who practice such things.

I don't think Paul's desire here, as he's giving us proper perspective, as he's showing us the nature of the kingdom of Christ versus the kingdom of darkness,

I don't think his purpose is to make you question your salvation per se. It's just to remind you that why would

I engage in an activity of sin that I'm supposed to separate from?

Why would I think that anything good is gonna come forth from that activity at all, when the wrath of God is reserved for those who engage in that activity?

Why would I then engage in that? Why would I participate in that? Why would I not start today? I'm gonna separate from that immediately right now, as I have the proper perspective of how the kingdom of God works.

And as I kind of draw this to a close, I wanna look at the next few verses as a way of conclusion, because he kind of highlights separation using a very helpful analogy.

If you look at Ephesians 5, verse 8, he says, because of these things, because of the nature of truly how these things operate, do not be partners with them, separate.

And then he kind of gives an analogy of separation. Look at verse 8, he says, for at one time you were darkness.

He's talking about those who have believed upon Jesus, are following him. He says, at one time, before you knew

Christ, you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So walk as children of light.

And he says what that means. He says, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, right, and true, not sin. And so it's that analogy of light and darkness is a helpful one when it comes to separation.

Because whenever it's dark and you turn on a switch, notice how fast separation happens from light and darkness, immediately.

In fact, it happens so quickly that it's almost as if the darkness is running away from the light. And it's the same kind of mindset we need to have when it comes to the deeds of the flesh and the deeds of light.

That when we see that the actions of the flesh are those of the kingdom of darkness, but the actions of righteousness is the kingdom of light, we need to be with so much tenacity and so much desire after what is right that it's almost as if the darkness of our sins flees and runs away.

The desire to separate is so strong in our life to separate ourselves from darkness that it's like the darkness runs away from us as we flee from it.

I think when we're talking about separation, darkness and light is a perfect analogy because darkness, by nature, always flees from light.

They always separate from each other. But now as I land this plane, I want to remind ourselves, because if we're not careful, we can then, got the temptation before us and then all of a sudden we're with the word of God, we get brought up 500 feet in the air and we're seeing how things truly are with the kingdom of God and darkness, wrath, and inheritance of the kingdom, and we can start thinking, okay, so I really gotta be sure and careful that I'm avoiding all these things.

That's unlawful, that's unlawful, I gotta make sure I stay away from it, and then it just becomes one big morality test. I'm up here and I see all the different things that are gonna lead to wrath,

I gotta make sure I really avoid it. If that's what you're concluding here, concluding here as a Christian, you got it wrong.

Because the power to be light, the power to avoid sin, the power to depart from the thing that you wanna grab hold of because of the flesh, but yet you're supposed to separate, the power always comes forth from the source of light himself.

And look at what, if you didn't notice it, look again at verse eight. He says, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light, what?

Of yourself. But in the Lord, the Lord is the light. From the

Lord comes all the essence of light that we need in order to reflect that light around us. It is the

Lord who has died for sinners and rose again in power. It is the Lord that gives you of that light of himself, of his righteousness, of his self, by this death and resurrection.

It is the Lord who is able. It is the Lord who has the kingdom of light and he allows you to share in it by your repentance, by your turning to him, by your believing upon him, by your reliance upon him.

In fact, so much is this rich with gospel light that he concludes in verse 10, try to discern what is pleasing to the

Lord. Notice Paul doesn't say, try to be lawful then, therefore. But instead, the power of Jesus and the kingdom of light and the inheritance of the kingdom is that he makes you want to please the

Lord. So that that big thing in your face, like, man, it looks so good, all of a sudden you get the proper perspective and you say, but that doesn't please my

Lord. That doesn't please my Father. You see, the power of the light is to transform your heart to make you want to love

God. And so really the litmus test of that sin before you, do you love that sin or do you love

God more? And as you consider Jesus Christ and what he's done for you, your heart's filled with thanksgiving and you say,

I love God more. You come back down on ground level and you say, I don't love that thing. I love

Christ. I want to do what's pleasing to him. Remember what Jesus said when he was on the earth.

He said, I always do what's pleasing to the Father. Jesus walked and always pleased the

Father. Temptations came and he didn't go to any of it. Why? Because he was driven by pleasing the

Father. And do you know that part of the inheritance of the kingdom that he gives you is a desire to please the

Father as well? I don't desire the sins of the flesh. That doesn't please my

God. And so as you're up there and you're seeing this perspective, you're not looking at a bunch of do's and don'ts. Don't do that, don't do that, don't do that.

Okay, I got to remember this. You're looking at, oh, that doesn't please God. That doesn't please God. I want to please God. That doesn't do it, that doesn't do it.

You come back down and you say, I'm ready to please God. This is what Jesus provides you in the power of the kingdom.

The power of light is not a list of do's and don'ts. It's a heart filled with gratitude for the gospel in which

I want to please my God. That's ultimately as you're faced with that temptation before you.

This doesn't please God, so therefore I'm not going to do it. That doesn't mean the desires of the flesh just goes away.

One day that's going to happen when the kingdom is complete. I mean, just imagine that for a moment. One day you'll never have the desires of the flesh at all.

Everything you desire to do will be pleasing to God and you'll never have to question it. You'll just do it.

The lack of battle there, I can't even fathom because we're here now and it's a constant battle in which is this pleasing to God?

It is not, so I'm not going to be a slave to the passions of the flesh. I'm going to be a slave of what pleases my

God because that's what Jesus has brought me to in his kingdom. That's the perspective I've had. That's what

I'll follow. Let us pray. Oh God in heaven, we thank you that you give us ability in your kingdom to inherit righteousness.

We know, Lord, that this is not a power that we give of ourselves. Lord, it's not a matter of well, we see what is lawful and what's not and so therefore we just strengthen ourselves for the task.

God in heaven, we know that the kingdom, it provides power. The death and resurrection of Christ, of what he's done for us and given of his spirit to us, it enables us to have a heart filled with gratitude and love to our

God who has saved us. And so now as we are confronted with the temptations of sin, sexual immorality, as we're confronted with anything that are poisoned, we tend to gravitate to whatever that may be in our individual lives.

We walk this land with those temptations, with Christ on our hearts. And this gives us ability to have proper perspective with our temptations.

God in heaven, I know that there's people before me that the temptation to sin, even as they go home tonight, they know he'll be there.

God in heaven, would you remind them, would you give them perspective here? The nature of the kingdom of Christ and the nature of the kingdom of darkness.

One leads to wrath and sadness. The miseries of such only grow in those sins, but the other, the blessed kingdom of life, we have pleasures and life and joy forevermore.

Surely Satan promises our gratification of the flesh in that moment, but we know that ultimately only leads to death.

In fact, it leads to death very quickly, short after. But we know God that what you give us is true pleasures, long lasting, joy forever, and life indeed.

So let us have this perspective as we look at our temptations to sin. And let us with love to Christ say,

I will not, I will follow my Lord instead who's done all for me. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for Christ.