Transcript

Be Pure As He Is Pure

Ephesians 5:1-6
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Pastor Randy Smith

I love what the Bible does! Before it ever gives commands, it presents identity. Before you get obsessed with what your must do as a Christian, you are informed as to who you are as a Christian. We have been learning about that in a sense ever since we began studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

So if you are in Christ, what is your identity? How should you ultimately see yourself? Forgiven of all your sins. Adopted into God's family. Given a new heart that beats after God's heart. Indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Baptized into His church. Showered eternally with God's love and grace. An entirely new creation. Rightly understanding these glorious realities is experiencing them. And experiencing them is understanding the need, now fueled with the desire and ability, to act differently.

The big picture, main point of the sermon is to act unlike the world in the pursuit of sexual purity. And understanding who you are in Christ, commands in that regard will seem outdated, impractical, daunting and less desirable.

1. The Motivation (verses 1-2)

So we begin where Paul begins in verses 1-2 with the motivation.

Before we ever get to the topic of sexual morality, of what we need to put off as God's people, we learn what we need to put on. Interestingly, it is not put off impurity and put on purity. It's put off impurity and put on love.

And before we even dive into the text, that makes perfect sense. Where's the love in cheating on your spouse? Where's the love for another's being when they only exist in your mind for sexual fantasies? Where's the love in violating another's purity before the commitment of marriage? Where's the love in pursuing what God detests in the name of satisfying sinful lusts?

Let me read verses 1 and 2. Listen for how many times in this context of sexual purity that you hear the word, "love." "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." I counted three in just two verses!

The problem with sexual impurity is ultimately a problem with a heart that does not know how to love God and love others. There is a place for warnings and commands and condemnations, but the primary reason we do not succeed in this area of sexual purity is because we do not love God, love others and love who we are in Christ.

Verse 1, "Therefore be imitators of God."

The "therefore" tells us that this builds off our discussion from the end of chapter 4. Imitating God! Why do we put of lying (4:25)? Because Satan is the "father of lies," but we imitate the God of truth. Why do we not steal (4:28)? Because we trust the Lord to provide and are content with what He has given. We do we not steal, rather we work with our hands so that we may imitate God and be a giver and not a getter. Why do we forgive others (4:32)? Because Jesus Christ has graciously and undeservedly forgiven us. We imitate Him by forgiving others. Therefore, when it comes to obeying, God is not giving us arbitrary rules. He is commanding us, verse 1, to imitate him!

I can remember when growing up that I, like many young boys, wanted to be like my dad. I'd follow him with the plastic lawnmower and put on his aftershave and dress like him, oftentimes disappearing in his clothes that draped over my body. As I grew older, I remember struggling with the realization that he was not always the man that I once thought he was. I know my dad loved me, but I'll never forget when he told me to do as he said and not as he did. I guess I wanted a role model.

There is no greater way to compliment someone than to want to be like that individual. And regardless of what people say, we all have our heroes (whether good or bad). We all have people that we want to emulate. It's important that we choose the right ones.

That's why Paul told the Corinthians to follow him as he follows Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). Human role models in the Christian faith are indispensable. We are not expecting perfection. We are looking for imperfect people who pursue Christ, but rightly know how to deal with sin when they find themselves in the middle of it. But no role model is more indispensable that God Himself.

That's why verse 1 tells us to imitate ("mimetes" - "mimic") God "as beloved children."

We are now in God's family. He is our Father, a Father who loves us more than we can ever understand. He's proven that love through Christ. Romans 5:5 teaches that "the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit." We are fully accepted by Him. He takes great pleasure when we imitate Him, showing our desire to bear His beautiful image. And He takes great grief when we choose to act contrary to who He is.

You see, we obey God because we are loved by God. We do not obey to earn His love. We already have His love and nothing can change that if we are truly in Christ. So a heart that truly loves God is a heart that adores God and a heart with childlike faith that wants to imitate Him, please Him. My friends, we all know how easy it is to sin against law. What we are commanded in verse 1 to do is not sin against love. It's the, "My parents will kill me if I ever do that" verses, "This will kill my parents if I ever do that."

Therefore, we should (verse 2) "walk in love." How? Here we go again - gospel living! We love (verse 2) "just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

So do you see what's going on here? The very next verse will talk about the need to pursue sexual purity. But Paul does not immediately go there, as most Christians often do, with the checklist of spiritual virtues and vices. Morals!

There is a reason we are to be sexually pure. We just learned it in verse 1. The behavior is not in line with who you are in Christ as a dearly beloved member of God's family as you desire to imitate the purity of your heavenly Father. And there is now a motivation behind the command. We just learned that in verse 2. As Christ has loved you by giving up His life in obedience to the Father, you too must love God and others by shattering your love for self-satisfaction and through giving and sacrifice like Christ seek to be sexually pure. God's children are not to be marked by the selfish use of others for our own sinful profits, but rather we are to be marked by the selfless love of others for their greatest gains and then finding our true satisfaction in our relationship with Christ.

To put it in simple terms, men, when you see a very beautiful lady is your first thought exploiting that woman as an object who can momentarily satisfy a lustful fantasy or is it seeing that woman with worth as a creation of God, a daughter of some father out there, that deserves respect with the primary concern for her potential need of salvation in Christ.

Now do you see why we have verses 1 and 2 before we get to verses 3 and 4? Because even with the most profound law in the Bible, thinking this way as a man borders on the degree of impossibility and insanity. But when it's couched in the gospel and we see it from God's perspective - who He is as a holy Father, what Christ has sacrificed for us and where we now stand as His beloved children - it makes all the sense in the world. Self-sacrificial love is totally at odds with self-indulgent lusts.

2. The Command (verses 3-4)

With that we move to the second point, "The Command." Look with me at verses 3 and 4. "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks."

Now we get to the specifics. Sexual sin was rampant in the Greco-Roman world, not much different than it is amongst us today. It's continually paraded before our eyes and our hearts. It appears normal, attractive and permissible.

So what are the sexual "put offs?" Verse 3, "Immorality" - ("Porneia - pornography"), any kind of illegitimate sexual activity. This refers to all sexual sin including adultery, fornication, homosexuality, polygamy, bestiality and pornography. "Impurity" - more of a general term refers to anything unclean or filthy, which would include the above, but also add immoral thoughts, ideas and fantasies. And I believe the third word, "greed," is also to be taken in this context. The problem with sexual immorality that God forbids is that it all not only contradicts the Gospel, which is Christ with His bride in a covenanted relationship, but it also replaces the loving self-sacrifice of Christ with self-will, self-gratification and self-centeredness. It stems from greed. It stems for using others for personal indulgence. And because if it is not of God, true pleasure is never attainted and the greedy quest to have more is never fulfilled. Anyone who has ever struggled with pornography will clearly tell you this.

That's why Paul says at the end of verse 3 that behavior such as this should never even "be named among you [because it is not] proper among the saints."

So in Galatians 5:19 sexual immorality is a deed of the flesh. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 we are told to abstain from it. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 we are told to flee from it. In 1 Corinthians 6:9 we are told it is incompatible with the kingdom of God. And here (in verse 3) we are told sexual immorality is not fitting of those who are called "saints."

Paul already used this term of all Christians in 1:1. "Saint" simply means "holy one." We've covered this already in depth. When you came to Christ on the basis of faith, you acknowledged that all of your sins were transferred to Him when He died on the cross. And you accepted the fact that all of His righteousness was transferred to you. In the eyes of God you are declared righteous. In the eyes of God you are perfectly holy in Christ. In the eyes of God you are a saint.

Therefore, if you are a saint, how can you live contrary to your new nature? How can you be so deceived by Satan's counterfeits of God's good gifts? How can you find any attraction to this way of living that characterizes unbelievers? How can you grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells within you by pursuing something with His temple that is diametrically opposed to His nature?

Paul says in verse 3 don't even let this stuff be named among you! Don't give sexual sins an inch (speech, thought, entertainment) because their natural progression of sexual immorality is always to demand much more. Guard your heart and guard your testimony! When it comes to sexual purity (based on your language, entertainment, social media posts, actions), what would people say about you?

You know, I don't like to speak of myself (in a positive light), but I am so thankful by God's grace that He allowed my wife and I to be pure prior to our marriage while we were dating and throughout our engagement. It wasn't easy. She had her own place and I had my own place. Leaving her warm couch on sub-freezing Chicago nights at the wee hours of the morning (the kind where the snow just crunches under your feet) and driving nearly an hour back to my place in the suburbs in a car that barely started demanded a lot of the Spirit's power. But we made that promise to the Lord and each other. Even as older Christian singles, we knew that spending the night together put before us not only an unnecessary temptation, but would destroy our testimony to those who observed it.

I think this is what Paul means when he talks about not a hint of immorality even being named among us. When people see us there should be no doubt of our position in Christ. That for His glory we would be seen as sexually pure. In verse 12 Paul puts it like this: "For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." Live in the light. If you are a saint in God's eyes, act like it! Let nothing you do and nothing you say give even a hint that you are sexually impure.

That's why in verse 4 we see Paul get more specific. "And there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks."

We are talking about comments that are disgraceful because of the way they belittle God's beautiful intention for sexual relations within a marriage between one man and one woman. Specifically it's the immoral wit, vulgar conversations, perverted entertainment, sexual innuendos, dirty jokes, raunchy pick-up lines, suggestive speech, you get the idea. It's the stuff that reveals not a sanctified mind given by a pure God, but rather the dirty mind of those without Christ.

As verse 4 says, talk like this is "not fitting" for God's children. You don't hang a Michelangelo painting in a dirty barn! We should put it off (as we have been learning) and rather put on, verse 4, the "giving of thanks." Rather than the greedy desire to have more at the expense of others, God's people are content with the boundaries God has placed on sexual activity and are grateful for His provisions whether single or married.

3. The Warning (verses 5-6)

Let's move to the final point called, "The Warning." If there is any doubt as to what God thinks about sexual immorality, verses 5 and 6 will definitely seal the discussion.

First, verse 5, "For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

Could that have been stated any clearer? This is not referring to someone who falls into sin and then repents. This is speaking to the individual that lives in persistent sexual immorality and justifies it and rationalizes it in such a way that their practices are more to be respected and followed that God's expectation.

That's why Paul in verse 5 calls such a person an "idolater." It's worshipping the creature and not the Creator (Rom. 1:25). They have no interest in following God. They have created their own false god who they serve. And therefore they give no evidence of being in God's family or bearing the likeness of God Himself. It is a proven fact that we will always serve the god that we worship.

Such as person (the bottom of the verse says) is not enjoying the truly satisfying blessing of the "kingdom of Christ and God" now and should not expect to enjoy any of it in the future. You see sexually immorality is so much against the character of God, those in the church should run from it because (top of verse 5) we "know with certainty" that such people are outside of God's kingdom. It's a "no-brainer." Why in the world would we wish to imitate not our heavenly Father, but rather His enemies that are incurring His displeasure and wrath?

Therefore, verse 6, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

I've officiated a lot of weddings over the past twenty years as a full-time pastor. When couples are sexually active or even just living together I refuse to work with them. This is such a major sin, I can't see any reason they would want me or God for that matter in their relationship if they demonstrate no self-control or repentance in this area.

Yet there was one situation that I made an exception. They were young, new to the Lord and new to the church. I thought that after our counseling, sharing the Word of God for several weeks, that the Holy Spirit would convict their hearts and they would abstain on their own. They made no movement, so I spoke to them during our final session.

They were very upset with me. They felt that I had "judged" them. They left the church. I even offered to have one of them live with my family at no charge until their wedding which was only a couple months away. The woman's response was, "That would be like moving back in with my parents." Pretty comical, but very sad. Even after pleading with them about their conscience and the witness to their church and future children, and their testimony to the lost, none of it made any difference in their hearts.

This is the power of sexual immorality. It will make you choose between it and God. You will be devoted to one. You will not be permitted to have both.

So savor your identity in Christ. Honor God by wanting to be like Him and not the world that is under His judgment. Know the blessings of purity and a sexual relationship within marriage. And be warned of the consequences both in this life and the life to come.