Ephesians 5 (part 1)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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There was a man named Leroy Imes, and he discipled lots of men, wrote books on discipleship.

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And he had a cousin who was in an iron lung. And when you're in an iron lung, you can't do much.

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Your arms and your legs waste away. This was before we had polio vaccines, and this man was in this iron lung.

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He could not feed himself, he could not turn a book page. And a friend of Leroy Imes asked the man in the iron lung, what's your severest hardship every day?

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And the man in the iron lung looked at them and said, the temptations of the lust of the flesh.

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Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5, and let's talk about this very issue. Sexual purity and sexual sin found in the book of Ephesians.

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As you know, we live in a sex -saturated culture. We're suffocated with all kinds of sexual sin.

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Obviously, God designed sex. It's good between a man and a woman in marriage. It's right, it's holy, it's upright.

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It is to be commended, it is to be thanked. God is to be thanked for it. From the flip side, what

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God makes as good, we as people just torque and destroy. And our society, really,

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I think, is acting like Judah in Jeremiah 5. Vivid words. Why should

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I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the harlot's house.

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They were well -fed lusty horses, each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

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Shall I not punish these people, declares the Lord? And on such a nation as this, shall I not avenge myself?

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And Paul knew that he was writing to Christians at Ephesus.

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And that they were in the same kind of gross culture. All kinds of ritual prostitution, sexual sin everywhere.

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So how is a Christian supposed to think about sexual purity in a sex -saturated age?

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And that's where we come to Ephesians chapter 5. If you're new here to the church, this is your first time here.

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I probably went too slow working through the book of Hebrews verse by verse. And I'm probably going too fast with the book of Ephesians.

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But it's on purpose. Two sermons per chapter. So six total chapters with 12 sermons.

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And today we're going to look at the first half of Ephesians chapter 5. Next week we'll look at the second half,

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Lord willing. If we're here, I'm here. If we're not, all nuked to the, you know, to smithereens, right?

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This could be our last day on earth. For some of us, for all of us, we want to make sure we think rightly about the

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Lord Jesus. Paul is writing this letter, and it's meant to be read at one sitting.

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If somebody was going to read it publicly, which was very often the case, you would listen to the whole thing.

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So we don't want to just parachute into chapter 5 and say, well, we want to morally and ethically abstain from sexual sin and enjoy sexual morality.

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Although that's true, we're different than other people because there's a reason for us to do it.

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We're children of God. There's power for us to say no because the Spirit of God dwells in us.

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When you begin to rehearse everything that God has done for you in Ephesians 1, you think, He chose me and eternity passed.

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The Son died for me. The Spirit sealed me. Jesus now has made peace between Jew and Gentile.

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There are mysteries in the universe that no one ever knew until God said through Paul, I will tell you about these.

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We are on the inside track for these. We understand, and because we're children of God, and because God has already put off the old

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Adam and put on the new Adam, because we're new in Christ, God is sanctifying us, and now we're able by a sanctifying grace to say no to sin.

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We kill it. Mortification. And yes to righteousness. What's the

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Spanish word for live? I wanted to say live. Viva. Yeah, so vivification for living, living to righteousness.

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God's sanctifying grace allows us to say no to sin and yes to righteousness, and now we come to Chapter 5.

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So one of the things I never want to do is just kind of parachute down and say, well, it's just a to -do list, and it almost kind of sounds like a

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TED Talk. Well, it's not a TED Talk. It's a talk from an apostle who's acting like a shepherd and a pastor and a father, and he says this, if you want what's best for you, this is what you're to do.

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If you want to glorify the Father, this is what you should do. Now we're going to look at Chapter 5, verses 1 through about 16, and you can really summarize it simply if you like to take notes.

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The first half is walking in love. The second half is walking in light. You're going to see a lot of love words early on, agape, self -sacrificial, and you're going to see a lot of words where we get the word photography, our photon beam, our photon.

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What do they use in Star Trek? Photon what? Laser. What? Oh, photon torpedo.

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Of course. Star Trek, not Trek. So the first section, we respond to God's saving grace.

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How? With love, sacrificial love, and in light. So love and light, that's the way we're going to work on it.

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And it starts off with this kind of almost absurd verse. If there's an absurd verse in the

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Bible, could it be Chapter 5, verse 1? Of course, I'm just playing off words. There's nothing absurd in God's Word.

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But it strikes you kind of funny when you first read it, Ephesians 5 .1. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children.

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You'd like to know the key to sanctification? On your mark, get set, go. Imitate God. Now let's just close in prayer.

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Imitate God? This is kind of a crazy thing to say. I don't see any other scriptures that say imitate

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God. I see when Paul says, imitate me. I see where Paul says, imitate me as I imitate

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Christ. But here is this standard of imitating God.

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Lloyd -Jones says, is this possible? Is this not gross exaggeration? Has not the apostle run away with himself and allowed his eloquence to dazzle him?

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Is he seriously asking men and women like you, living in a world like this, harassed by the devil, surrounded by temptations, to be imitators of God?

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And I love the word imitate there because it's where we get our word mime. And I know we've got a lot of kind of computer nerdy people here.

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We're not talking about multipurpose internet mail extensions. We're talking about mimics. Okay, I threw that in for the

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W. I threw that in for you to imitate, to mime.

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We have Xerox copy machines. And when they first came out, I remember in the mid -70s, early 70s, my buddy, his dad was a pharmacist and he had one.

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And we had the best time Xeroxing our faces. And, you know, you're first getting a beard.

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You think you're kind of manly and you Xerox your face and you could see it. And nothing would result from it except a bunch of oil on top of that nice glass.

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That's the word here. It's kind of where we get the word mimic, or mimeograph, or pantomime. It means to copy.

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And he makes it clear here, do you see, in verse 1, as beloved children. Oh, that makes a little more sense.

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Right? The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree when it comes to like father, like son, like mother, like daughter.

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Oh, I'm supposed to imitate God because I'm his child. It would be normal and natural and right for a child to mimic his parents.

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They want to grow up and be like their parents. And they're not just children. They're beloved children.

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Children are natural mimics. I remember when my kids were younger, my children rather, and they would say,

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Yup, yup. Like, what? You're supposed to say yes. How did they learn yup and yap?

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I don't know about the yap part. That was the dog. But the yap part was I say yap instead of yes. And they just mimic that.

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What in the world does it mean to imitate God? We're told the answer, verse 2.

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And this is the section for love. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

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Here's the message ahead of time. God's love gives. And you think about Jesus at Calvary, the ultimate love gift.

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God loved at his own cost for the betterment of the loved ones.

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Love gives. Love gives. Sexual sin takes.

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That's going to be the play here. God's love gives. That's how we imitate God. Because sexual sin, and that's all sex outside of marriage, sexual sin takes.

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God is self -sacrificial. And sexual sin is self -gratifying.

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That's going to be the play here. That's why he says in verse 2, walk in love. This agape love.

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What kind of love is that? Emotional love or romantic love? No, no. As Christ, the Messiah.

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How does the Messiah love us and give himself up for us? He's talking about, of course, his suffering in life and in death.

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And so we're to walk in this Christ -like love. Jesus is, of course, a substitute for our sins.

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But in many areas, he's an example. In the old days, they wore bracelets, right? And it said some letters on there, four letters.

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What did those letters say? WWJD. Sometimes it was bad advice, right?

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You don't want to go to the wilderness and not eat for 40 days. So it doesn't always work. But here, it works in the sense that he's to be an example.

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1 Peter 2, he's an example of suffering. Here, he's self -sacrificial. And that's the way we're supposed to love.

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He gave himself up. The ultimate, the supreme giving up is the Lord Jesus.

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John 15, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

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A verse that you know very well, Galatians 2, verse 20. Who loved me and gave himself for me.

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1 John 3, 16, we know love by this. He laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

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Romans 8, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also freely give us all things with him?

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So God loves, gives. Society says sex, takes. Lust, takes.

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Love gives, lust takes. Voluntarily, at his own expense, he gives himself.

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And then it's got even more wonderful language. Do you see it? A fragrant at the end of verse 2, offering and sacrifice to God.

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Right out of Jewish Levitical sacrifice language, he talks about Jesus as a sacrifice.

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And so what does love do? It gives, and it's pleasing to God. What does lust or sexual sin do?

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It takes, and God is not pleased. That word sacrifice,

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I draw your attention to. Again, it's a quick sermon today, so I can't look at every word, but I love the word sacrifice because that's what love is.

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It's a sacrifice. It's a fragrant offering. It's a sweet -smelling offering. Do you know fragrant offering in the

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Old Testament Leviticus? It literally means it's an odor of rest. Think about some of the odors in your life, good odors.

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You're waking up from camping. Somebody got up earlier and put the fire on, and you can smell the coffee.

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Oh, you can smell the bacon. Glad I slept in. They're doing the work.

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Just a pleasing odor. There used to be a place called Midwest Express, and it was an airline out of Omaha, Nebraska in Milwaukee, and they would bake cookies on the flight while you were flying.

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And you could smell the waft of that just sweet -smelling aroma, and then they would come and give you cookies.

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Sound like Delta to you? It's just a joke.

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It was an odor of rest in the Hebrew. What do you mean it's an odor of rest? What's the sweet -smelling, fragrant offering in the

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Old Testament that's an odor of rest? Well, the odor of rest was this. They have sinned, that my people have sinned, and now

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I'm going to be, you think about anthropomorphically, just language of accommodation.

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I have to do something about it. The wages of sin is death, and now I need to be actively punishing people.

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But when I smell the sacrifice, I don't punish the people because the sacrifice has been done on behalf of the people, and now it's an odor of rest.

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God doesn't need to do anything or execute judgment. He's resting. That's the language here. It's a language of giving and pleasing

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God the Father. Well, if love gives, lust takes.

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Do you see it in verse 3? If love is sacrificial and sexual sin is selfish, what do you think

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God would say to His children? But sexual immorality, that's where we get the word pornography, porné, it's all kinds of sexual sin, including pornography.

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And all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.

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This kind of gross taking, this uncleanness, it's not like God. It's not being an imitator of God who is pleasing, who is sacrificial.

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No, no, it's taking. It's getting. It's self -indulgence. It's self -centered. It doesn't have a good aroma.

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It has a putrid aroma. Think about the worst thing you've smelled. That's what sexual sin is like. Once again,

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He's not talking about sexual activity in marriage. The Bible celebrates sexual activity in marriage.

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You can look at the Song of Solomon. You can look at Proverbs 5. He designed bodies. He designed pleasure.

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But when it comes to anything outside of a marriage, between a man and a woman, He says,

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I don't want you to do it, and I don't want it to even be named among you. Immorality, look at verse 3, general sexual sin, adultery, premarital fornication, homosexuality, lust, pornography, it's all covered there.

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And if that wasn't enough, He says, any impurity, catharizo, that's where we get our word cathartic, just get rid of all that uncleanness, too.

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It's filthy. It's unclean. From a Facebook fantasy to watching pornography on your phone, it's the deeds of the flesh.

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And you know what it ends up being? And this is kind of odd, too. He says it's like greed or covetousness.

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You want something that's not yours. In marriage, your wife or your husband is yours.

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1 Corinthians 7 says, actually it's a command, if you're able to regularly be together.

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But here, when they're not yours, it's like greed, wanting more and more and more and more and more.

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Insatiability, because you're consumed with yourself, and you just need somebody to be with. And by the way, sexual sin like this, do you see the text?

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It should not even be named among you. This language of sexual sin should be weird to us.

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It's out of place. We don't talk like this. We shouldn't talk like this. We shouldn't approve it or tolerate it.

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Herodotus said, one may not speak about what one may not do. Back in the

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Psalms and in Exodus, did you know God's people were not even allowed to say the names of their false gods?

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Because it would be blasphemous. That's the kind of idea here. The new God of America, the new God of this world is sex.

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Swipe right. That is not to be named among us. In this church, if you're struggling or you're involved in sexual sin, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, flirting around on Facebook, it's not even to be named among us.

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We're children. We've been saved. We've been redeemed. We've been elect. You're a child of the living God.

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This is a taking thing, and we're supposed to be the giving people. You say, but the whole world is doing it.

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That's true. But 1 Corinthians 6, it says, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

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Now, he alluded to it, but now he makes it clear in verse 4. We're not supposed to do it, but we're not supposed to talk about it either.

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Abstain from practice and abstain from talking about it. Verse 4, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk.

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This is all in the sexual realm. Nor crude joking. It's out of place.

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But instead, let there be thanksgiving. Paul, has he not already said in verse 29 of the previous chapter, let no corrupting talk come from your mouths?

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And now he repeats it in this chapter. When it comes to sex talk, and I'm not talking about a husband and wife in bed, somehow, in a wonderful way, talking about that.

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That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about sexual sin talk. Talking about sex, making it a joke.

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What do you do when you tell a joke about your mother -in -law? You demean your mother -in -law, and now you tell a joke about sex.

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You end up demeaning sex. When it comes to obscenity, of course, don't talk about it.

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But shameful, filthy, impure things, we're not to talk about. He even says here, it's called silly talk or foolish talk.

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It's where we get the word moron and talk. Don't talk like a moron talks. Some people are listening.

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The fool has said in his heart, there's no God. And he talks like it. Just this incessant talk.

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You know, some of the comedians are perfect at this. Maybe even you're good at it, where any little thing can be turned in to talk about sex.

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Innuendos are easily just turned. Sinclair Ferguson writes a very interesting two sentences.

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Christlike love banishes the salacious. Smut should be suffocated in the holy atmosphere of our fellowship.

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Even joking about it. Coarse jesting? No. Double entendres?

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No. Sexual gossip? No. It's not fitting.

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Verse 4, it's not fitting. Human sexuality weak? It's not fitting.

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Ignorance is bliss when it comes to sexual sin. What's the opposite?

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Before I answer that question, remember what Paul did in the previous chapter? It's one thing to say no to sin, but then you replace it with something.

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Right? God has made us new creations in Christ Jesus. We're able to say no to sin. We now want to honor

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God with our obedience as fruit and evidence of his work in us. The ground of our salvation is never our fruit.

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It's always Christ's work. But we would like to live holy lives and faithful lives as God has sanctified us.

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And he says, don't steal, but what? Work. He says, don't be angry and let the sun go down in your anger.

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What else does he say? Don't lie or tell falsehoods. Tell the truth. It's this put on, put off.

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Remember? This is the same thing. All these talks about sexual sin, put off.

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What's the put on? There's one put on for all those put offs. While we're not supposed to be talking about sexual sin at school, it's not fitting.

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At work, it's not fitting. On the computer, it's not fitting. At church, it's not fitting. It's not fitting at counseling.

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What do we do instead? What's the put on? It's one thing to say no, no, no, no, no. What's the put off?

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Well, all these sexual sin, what's the put on? Wow. It's give thanks. That's weird, isn't it?

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Now Thanksgiving comes around and we're ready for the turkey and we're ready for... Do they play college football anymore, turkey?

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Thanksgiving. And we all know, aren't we glad we have someone to be thankful to?

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Everybody else is thankful to be thankful and thankful for... I don't know, turkeys will probably be $900 in November and we'll all be thankful we have turkey.

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We say we have somebody to thank. This Thanksgiving here has someone to thank.

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Instead of saying take, take, take, take, take sexual sin, talk about sexual sin, take, take, take.

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We give. Love gives. Remember, Jesus gives himself. And what do we give?

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We give thanks. Instead of demeaning sex, we thank God for it.

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It's like the couple on their honeymoon night and they kneel down to the bed and they say, Lord, thank you for bringing us together.

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We're both Christian people. You've brought us together in holy matrimony. Thank you for everything that you've given us, forgiven us including even down to this where we can be in the married marriage bed because Hebrews 13 says the marriage bed is undefiled.

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And may we enjoy our time together. Thank you for this time together.

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That's what the replacement is. Giving thanks. It doesn't seem so obvious that instead of being a gutter mouth, we give thanks, but that's exactly what

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Paul is after. To give thanks to God. He could have said, but Thanksgiving unto God.

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He says in verse 20 later in the chapter, giving thanks always and everything to God the Father in the name of our

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Lord Jesus. The antidote for sexual sin is to talk rightly about God's purpose in sex and God's generosity in sex.

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First Thessalonians 5 and everything. Give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus, including for the gift of your wife in marriage, husbands and your husband, wives.

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God said sex is very good. God says sex is for enjoyment in marriage, in marriage.

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So it's not that big a deal. Verse 5. For you may be sure of this.

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You can put this down in bold. You can mark this down. You can be sure of this.

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That everyone who is sexually immore are impure. This is a lifestyle. This is not a one -off, anything like that.

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This is a lifestyle. This is 1 Corinthians 6 language. Don't be deceived. Or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

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Paul says, I want you to be very clear. For those who are practicing sexual sin, they ought not to call themselves

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Christians. Fascinatingly, he calls sexual immorality here an equivalent to idolatry.

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Because that's all you think about is your idol. That's all you want to talk about is your idol. That's what you want to spend your money on is your idol.

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And that's what happens with unbelievers when it comes to sex. He is not saying if you look at a woman with lust as a

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Christian, you lose your salvation. Has he not already given assurance for real Christians? Ephesians 1 .14,

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who is given, the Spirit of God is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

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Of course, he's giving gospel assurance, but he's saying there's some listening to this. Maybe there's someone here listening.

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You say, well, I don't know if I really need a savior. Well, does not your sexual sins show you that this judging

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God is going to judge you one day, and don't you need a savior? If you also notice, for those of you that want to understand that Jesus is the eternal son and he,

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Jesus, is God, look at the text. No inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

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They are co -equal in nature and essence. Hebrews 13, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled.

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For fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Revelation 21, but the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.

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That is the second death. And so Paul says, you can say you're a

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Christian, but what you do in the darkness, God sees. This is the will of God, 1

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Thessalonians 4, your sanctification. That is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

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And remember what Paul says to the church of Corinth? Don't be caught up in all this. Remember, you were some of those people, and such were some of you, but you were washed.

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Why do you want to go back to the dirt, sex, sin? You were sanctified, set apart for God. You were justified in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. Paul's saying the same thing that he did to the church of Corinth.

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He just says it with different words. This is who you are in Christ. Why go back to that old life? You say, yeah, but a lot of people tell me otherwise.

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Verse 6, let no one deceive you. I don't care if they're a priest, a prophet, a so -called apostle, a pastor, a school teacher.

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Don't let anyone deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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A loving God would never punish. Hey, I have a desire to eat, and I go have lunch.

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Nobody thinks it's a moral problem. I have a desire for sexual activity outside of my marriage. Nobody thinks that's a problem.

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I'm just an addict. The list goes on and on and on. Friends, let no one deceive you with empty words.

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Those are empty words. Aren't you beloved children? Of course, dear Christian, you are.

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So don't fall for people that just say, you know what? I can market something well enough, and you probably believe it.

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Come on, you have a right to be happy. Two consenting adults, those are empty words.

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I don't want anybody to call me some kind of prude or a Puritan or a Victorian or something like that. Well, nobody likes to be called that, but let me call you by your name first, and that is you're a child of God.

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Yeah, but I'm born this way. Empty words. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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God punishes sin. Maybe not always in this world, but He will punish sin. No inheritance for evildoers.

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Satan disguised himself as an angel of light. Therefore, 2 Corinthians 11, it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

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And because you can, you say no to sexual sin, and you enjoy your spouse if you're married.

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And if you say, I'm not married, but I'd like to be married. Well, young men especially, let me talk to you.

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He who finds a wife finds a good thing. Start to look. I actually know ladies at this church who are waiting to be approached because they've been taught by their parents.

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We can't be the aggressors. And also, dear Christians in this church who are married, 1

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Corinthians 7 is in the Bible for a reason because sexual temptation is true, and husbands and wives are commanded to be together in the bedroom.

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Well, this is the love section of Ephesians 5. In summary, God's love gives.

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God's love is pleasing. Our ideas about sex need to be right, giving, and pleasing, not taking.

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Now we come to the section about light. So you walk in love, and now we walk in light.

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I know what you're saying. You're saying you spent 30 minutes on that first one. That means it's going to be fast -paced on the second.

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You are correct. That's the way we roll around here. See how many times you can see the word light here in verses 7 through 10.

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Therefore, do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness. It doesn't say you were in darkness.

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You were darkness. I mean, that was our life. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

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For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the

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Lord. Dear Christian, remember, we were dead in trespasses and sins,

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Ephesians 2. Now we're in light. We were darkness. We're not that anymore.

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Colossians 1, He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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2 Corinthians 5, Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new what? Creature. The old things passed away.

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Behold, new has come. We have been transformed. And instead of children of darkness, we are, verse 8, there it is, children of light.

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So walk in that manner. We're different people because the grace of God made us different.

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Jesus has not only died for us and we get justification, but Jesus dwells in us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us so we can say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

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And not just yes to righteousness, but the fruit of light consists of righteousness. That's true. But goodness, that's far from sexual sin.

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Righteousness, doing the right thing. That's far from it. And truth. Because of the

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Spirit of God dwelling in you, you produce fruit. You produce evidence. God is working in you.

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That happens. He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your

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God. Micah chapter 6. And so there's this light that exposes and this light that has transformed us.

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And so we're different people. So what does he say in verse 11?

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Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Uh -oh. So far so good, but this next part is going to make me uncomfortable maybe.

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But instead, expose them. This is expository ministry.

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Expository ministry. I proclaim it and also with my life and words behind the scenes, not only in the pulpit, but I'm exposing.

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Sometimes you talk when you expose and other times you just show up. How many times, I don't think it's happened to you, some of you maybe, but I'll show up and I try not to just walk in the room with a backward collar saying,

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I'm High Holy Father, Reverend, Right Reverend. I just try to walk in and try to, sorry to use this word, but try to just be cool.

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Just try to be normal. Some try to be cool. Some just are. I'm trying.

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And people run in their mouths and all kinds of words and everything. And it finally gets to me and they say,

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Well, what do you do for work? I tell them, I'm a politician. No, I say,

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I'm a Bible teaching pastor. The air is sucked out of the room. Now see, with my title,

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I can even expose what they're doing. But he's not saying it to pastors here. He's saying, and you can see the put on, put off stuff here, take no part in these unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

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And I don't think you probably liked it the first time somebody exposed your sin.

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But aren't you glad they did? I remember sitting in the car on Sunset Boulevard.

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Everybody's giving their testimonies. My testimony was, I go to church to assuage

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God or something, I don't know. And they looked at me and they said, Well, Mike, tell us a little bit about you. And I said,

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Well, I'm a Christian. And the guy looked at me and he goes, How can you call yourself a Christian? And I wanted to punch the guy.

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But remember, we have something in California called chips, and they probably would have come after me. I wish

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I knew his name. I wish I knew his number. I sat there thinking, How can this guy say,

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Don't you dare call yourself a Christian because I know what you do. I would have never thought about verse 12.

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See it? For it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. It's not enough to abstain from sexual sin.

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It's not enough to thank God for sexual morality. But there's this exposing. We are salt and what?

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Light. That's what we do. Our options are not ignore, compromise, live and let live, join in, be nice, be neutral.

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We don't judge. We're known for what we're for, not what we're against. We're to be tolerant. We've got ostrich mentality.

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We don't think it exists. No, when there's cancer in someone, you've got to deal with it.

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We don't participate and we expose. They do things in secret.

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We don't talk about it. Verse 13. We're almost done. But when anything is exposed by the light, this is an obvious statement, but true.

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It becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light.

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Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

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What does that mean? Well, I remember when I was a kid, my mom would try to wake me up. But what would your mom say when she tried to wake you up when you were little?

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Rise and shine, right? My mom would say, up and at them. My mom would say, snooze can only be used 20 times.

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I remember I couldn't get up sometimes and I would have my one alarm. And then I started going to work early. One alarm here and the other alarm

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I would put across the room. Really loud, obnoxious one. The kind that you would like wind up. And sometimes my leg would fall asleep when

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I would sleep. Whole leg would fall asleep. And I remember just jumping up to get that alarm because it's just that worst sound ever.

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And then I was like slain in the spirit because down I go. It's like a tire iron in the swimming pool.

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Down you go. I mean,

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Paul is talking about all this. And, you know, if you're involved in these kind of sins, don't be deceived.

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Don't you think it would be natural for Paul? Do you think it would be normal for Paul after he's addressed Christians and he warns them and he loves them and you're a child of God and walk in love?

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Don't you think it would be normal and natural for him to say to people that were reading the letter or to hear the letter or hear it preached from the pastor to talk to people who are unbelievers and say,

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Do you know what? If you're sleeping in your sin and you're not a Christian, it's time to wake up.

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Do you think that would be normal and natural for Paul to do? Of course. Now, when you talk about salvation, that's something that God does.

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And God alone does. The gospel is what God does. Specifically in the personal work of the

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Lord Jesus. Sent by the Father. Empowered by the Spirit. When I say gospel, it's good news, that means

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I'm not involved in any of the good news. Because you look at my life and yours, it's bad news. And so, the gospel is about Jesus.

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Period. But when we're given the gospel of Jesus, how He died, lived, how

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He lived and died and was buried and raised, ascended and is praying, when we talk about Him, there's a response for the unbeliever.

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Right? Sometimes we say, Believe. Sometimes we say, Trust. Sometimes we say,

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Repent. There's a response to the good news. Well, that's exactly what this is.

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This is conversion language. This is the responsibility of the unbeliever to respond to the truth about who

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God is. And it could say all kinds of things about Jesus' death and life and all that.

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But that's been talked about. And now he says in the middle of light and exposure, If you're here today and you're not a

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Christian, this is like a little triplet of commands. Awake, O sleeper.

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Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. You say,

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Where did that come from in the Bible? Because it's kind of indented in my Bible. Well, it's probably an amalgamation. It's a combining of Isaiah 60,

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Isaiah 26, and Isaiah 9. And it's a little hymn.

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It's a good little hymn. You can even sing this hymn to your kids when they wake up. And you can say, I mean it for you to literally wake up and also one day to believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 9, The people who are in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 60,

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Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. When you see someone sleeping, they're not responsive.

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You know, we've done all kinds of tricks to our brothers and sisters, have we not? When they were sleeping and taking naps, and you do things to them and sprinkle water on their faces or put their hands in water.

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You do all kinds of weird things, don't you? And it's just like they don't do anything. They're irresponsive. You're dead.

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You're irresponsive. And now it's like Jesus walks up to the tomb of Lazarus, and He says what?

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Arise. And Lazarus arises. And similarly, you hear this call, this gospel call.

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I could say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I could say confess with your mouth. I could say trust in God.

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Or I could say to you, dear unbeliever, it's time to wake up from your slumber.

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Awake. Rise from the dead. And Christ will shine on you. That's what

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Paul's after. He says, awake sleeper. Look at the first little triplet there. Awake sleeper.

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This reminds me of Augustine when he read this in the Bible in Romans 13. Knowing the time that is already for you to be awakened from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than we had already believed.

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Night is almost gone. Day is at hand. Then he says the second one, arise from the dead.

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We're spiritually dead, Ephesians 2, and so arise. It doesn't mean you can of your own working, but this is

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God working behind the scenes. And your response, God's grace in your life, and you respond with belief.

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Or in this case, you are awakened. We use that language, the great awakenings. And Christ will shine on you.

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You notice what it says? People think, you know what, my sins are so bad I could never come to Christ because how could a

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God ever forgive me for what I've done? You know what's so good about the grace of God? Does the text say you're going to be exposed?

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Of course you are going to be exposed, but what's the focus here? Yes, you're exposed, but you are now what?

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Enlightened. God shines on you. Christ shines on you. I think if I recall rightly,

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John, the great gospel, talks about Jesus is the bread of life.

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Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is the true vine.

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Jesus is the door to the sheep. Jesus is the gate to the sheep. Jesus is the great shepherd. I think somewhere it says in John 8, 12, does it not?

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I am the what? Light of the world. That's exactly right. He doesn't just expose, he shines.

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You know what shining talks about? Approval. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you.

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The Lord make his face what? Frown on you. To shine on you.

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You've probably done it 50 times here at this church, but you know when you die you're going to have this look on your face? When you're angry with people you look like this?

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And when you have that little one year old in the crib, you wake up in the morning, you lean over the crib and you say,

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Hi, son. That's a shining face. It's a face of approval. Can you imagine, dear unbeliever, you take all your sins and you say,

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God, these are against you. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. I deserve to go to hell.

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I've earned hell. I've merited hell. What was done to Jesus should have been done for me. But your word says that I come to you and I'm like the man that said,

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Would you have mercy on me? Guess what? The Lord Jesus forgives people.

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He shines on them. Horatious Bonar, I heard the voice of Jesus say,

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I am this dark world's light. Look unto me, thy mourn shall arise, and all thy day be bright.

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I looked at Jesus and I found in him my star, my sun. And in that light of life I'll walk till traveling days are done.

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I deliver to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

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And if your response to that is to believe and to rest and receive and accept and to be rising from the dead,

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Christ will shine on you. Isn't that good news? It's good news. Well, how does he end?

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Verse 15 and 16. Look carefully then how you walk. There's that language of walk that we started with.

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Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of time because the days were evil. It doesn't say best use of time, does it?

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It doesn't mean you got 168 hours, you know, in a week or 24 hours in a day and make sure you redeem time.

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No, it says the time. What time is that? When there's an opportunity before you, sovereignly ordained, you use it.

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That's all that means. More about that next week. Walk in love.

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Walk in light. Bow with me, please. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you that we have it.

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For most of us here as Christians, we're thankful that you graced us enough to be no longer sleeping, but awake.

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Christ has shone his love on us. He's demonstrated his own love for us.

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While we were sinners, he died for us, and he still demonstrates it. Thank you for that. I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church.

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Pray for me, that we, as your children, might be far removed from sexual sin.

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May it not even be named here. For those that are here that are in sexual sin now, I pray that you'd give them no rest of their conscience until they repent and forsake it.

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We're thankful that when we look to the Lord Jesus, it's all been covered. He never, even though tempted, never sexually sinned, never did anything untoward, no filthy talk, no idolatry, no bad language, nothing.

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He was the great Savior. So we look to him. And I pray for people that are here today that are not Christians, and maybe what's exposed in their life is their own sexual sin and lust.