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How far do you want to read the whole check the whole chat. Ephesians chapter 5. Be therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor at fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once unnamed among you has become a Saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting.
Which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks for this. You know that no homelonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. But whatsoever does make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give the light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things under God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as under the Lord, where the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church and he is the Savior of the Body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also has loved the Church and gave himself for it.
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word.
That he might present it to himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated yet his own flesh, but nourishes it, and cherish it even as the Lord, the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.
And she'll be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is amidst a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverenced her husband.
That first verse in the new translation reads Be therefore imitators of God as dear children, as.
As God has dealt with us, so we ought to deal with others. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself.
For us and offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
I I think of that passage in X2 it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers.
How often do Christians in the United States of America and Canada great bread?
Very seldom. Instead they go to hear a preacher.
It's sad that that which is the central theme of all our blessings, the cross.
Is so little thought of.
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Today.
I made the comment that I think in this land that is so favored.
80 to 90% of those who are real Christians don't even know what a real Christian is.
They're here to improve this world. That's not why we're here. We're not here to improve this world. We're here to present Christ.
And the most perfect object that we can be occupied with, that which fill the Father with joy unspeakable, this is my beloved Son, he said, in whom I am well pleased and whom I delight. And that's why you're here, and that's why I'm here, is to manifest Himself who has given His all for us. Christianity is the only religion.
That gives.
And gives and gives.
Who? Which, when it's properly done, I mean and manifest love. These other religions, Muslims and others, they don't know what love is. They don't know what grace is, they don't know what the chief features of Christianity are. Do we?
Do I the way I treat my wife?
The way the wife is subject to her husband will come to that.
Well.
The imitators of God.
He couldn't have done more.
So the likes of one like me and you.
And walk in love.
How it tells us what we're to be like, why he's left us here.
Walk in love as Christ also loved us.
Never did anything for himself.
The creator of the universe.
Always serving.
When the Lord Washington washed the feet of the disciples, Peter said Thou shalt never wash my feet if I wash thee not Peter, thou has no part with me, not my feet, only with my hands in my head. Peter always made mistakes like you and I did.
He washed their feet so that we might see how we're to conduct ourselves.
Wash one another's feet.
Bring Christ before them. Bring the Word of God. We've had a lot of the Word of God read in our conference so far. You can't improve upon this book. Impossible.
As Christ has given himself for us.
An offering and a sacrifice to God by a sweet smelling savour. Oh what that was to the Father. A sweet smelling savour.
First thing the Lord said was Father forgive them.
For himself, they know not what they do.
And then the last thing he said, It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And the simplest thing, I can look back at the last numbers of Lord's days. It seems that each Lord day the remembrance of himself gets more precious, more wonderful. We don't go to Hiram Preacher, we go to give him the worship, adoration and praise which he is so worthy of.
To be able to imitate someone, you have to know that person.
And the better you know that person, the better you can imitate them. There's an expression we sometimes use. You get to be like the people you live with. That is, you unconsciously begin to I am imitate them in various things. Maybe what you say, maybe in your actions, maybe even it comes out in your personality. And if we're going to be followers or imitators of God, we must know God. Now it's true, it says no man has seen God at any time, but it goes on to say the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
And we don't have to wonder who God is. We don't have to wonder what the heart of God is. It's been fully revealed to us in the giving of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you wonder about the heart of God, just look to the cross.
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Just meditate on the mighty sacrifice that was made there, God giving His Son the Lord Jesus, as it says here, offering Himself as that sweet savor. The whole pathway and work of the Lord Jesus was one that glorified God, the only Begotten who's in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him. We beheld His glories as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so this book has revealed to us.
Recorded by Inspiration, the Life and work of the Lord Jesus, the Epistles, the types and illustrations in the Old Testament.
And the more we get into this book and read it and have Christ before us and see who God is, then the more we're going to, shall I say, unconsciously or subconsciously be imitators of God. It's going to show in our lives. But I say, you cannot imitate someone if you don't know that person. And so let's be encouraged to get to know who God is. He's been fully revealed to us. His heart has been fully manifest. And now we're exhorted to not only know him, but to be imitators of him.
What a privilege that is. What a privilege as we walk through this SER this, this world, this world that hates him.
Doesn't want him showed what it thought of God's greatest gift when it nailed him to a cross and they said we will not have this man to reign over us. We say we do have a man that reigns over us that is everything to us who we're now to imitate and to represent That's our privilege. That's why we're left here we're not left here so you'll you'll you'll gain $1,000,000 prize or and all these things that the world.
Holds out and dangles before the eyes of men, no.
That they they don't attract us anymore. Maybe they did when we were unsafe. They shouldn't attract us at all.
Yes.
We teach you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
For the compassion of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable under God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service.
There is a living sacrifice and we get himself a sacrifice.
And an offer to God for a sweet smelling snake. In Isaiah 58 we get a fast that God has chosen.
And it's that which sets forth his character, what he's like.
And that's, that's our privilege. What an immense change in the early part of Romans to be.
Uh, have our guilt gone and have delivery from sin and to be brought into blessing to where life itself can be a sweet savor to God?
Immense change, having been poor lost sinners. What a what glory for his name.
And then we have a list of the things that the flesh must.
After first one that heads the list is fornication.
Please.
Sell, Please sell.
Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness.
But if not, we once named among you, has become of Saints. That's so sad as we look at the Christian world now.
How often times that kind of thing is just looked at, looked over?
To misrepresentation of God.
We're not here for that. We're not here to minister to ourselves at all.
But to manifest Christ.
Could we say, Brother Chuck, that the perspective here would take us back to the beginning of the Epistle? We didn't take up or we aren't taking up the what we would call the doctrinal part of Ephesians. This is the practical side. It's the responsibility side, and I'm thankful we're taking it up, but it's always based on what God has already done for us and the position He's put us in.
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And as we've often been reminded before, Ephesians, I suppose, gives us the highest truth as to the privileges that God in His grace has been pleased to confer on man. And if we read those first 2 1/2 Chapters of Ephesians, what do we find? We find that there is One who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. There is One who says, and hath made him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body.
What the fullness of him that filleth? All in all, I cannot carry these exhortations out without reference to God and reference to Christ and throughout this chapter.
I've had to remind myself of that because if I simply say well I shouldn't do this or I shouldn't do that, or this isn't becoming to a Christian. I may say to myself all that is true, but if I don't look out, I will find myself back in Romans 7 and find out to my horror that that which I would not that I do Why? Because I have lost my view.
Of who Christ is, and what He has done for me as our brethren have been bringing out.
Because His love and all that He is and all that He has done for me no longer has that tug on my heart.
The position I've been brought into, I've lost sight of that. And then as you say, brother Chuck, I'll start pleasing myself. I'll start saying why not? I want to. And the bottom line, as we read here in this third verse.
Is covetousness.
Pardon me if I lay a little emphasis on this.
I hope no one is offended.
But I well remember our late brother. I say our late brother Harry Hayhoe been gone for 45 years. But anyway.
He used to remind us, he said, when someone has to be put away from the Lord's Table for a serious sin, it is never an occasion of a man being overtaken in a fault, or a woman either for that matter, as in Galatians 6 and one, he said. It's always a course pursued.
It's always a number of red lights being run until finally it manifests itself in something so serious that it involves the assembly. This verse brings that out. What is the root of fornication? Covetousness. That starts off in the heart, The uncleanness. Let's be honest about it. That has to precede that. And finally it manifests itself in the sin of such a character that it has to be.
Something the assembly takes up. What's the answer? The answer is to deal with the covetousness.
The answer is to say, am I desiring that which God has not rightfully given to me?
And stop it in its tracks right there. But I can only do it with a reference to Christ, to God himself, to all that he is and all that he has done for me. And then it won't be simply a matter of my conscience saying I mustn't do that, although that's there. It'll be a matter of my heart saying I cannot do that.
Before the God who loved me enough not only to send his Son to die for me, but to bring me into such a wonderful position before Him.
Scripture says that covetousness is idolatry. I think of Judas Iscariot. What was his sin? It was covetousness. Now Ananias and Sapphira, they lied about how much they sold their land for. What was it that motivated them? It was covetousness.
Just let me just finish my thought. I just took a breath. That's alright.
Umm. The last thing that John says in his first epistle is keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from idols.
From covetous, from covetousness, from desiring whatever we might want to desire to please ourselves. I just want to tell this little story. It's a little bit off this, but I think it illustrates it nicely. Young man was walking with a lot of books in his arms down a hallway and another one came and the other one didn't try to get out of the way and he hit him and all the books went down on the ground and the one that was hit said.
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Oh, why did you do that? And he said.
Because I wanted to. What you're gonna do about it?
The one that had had all his books knocked away, he said, well, I'm going to pick up all my books and then go my way. Would you have done that?
To pick up all my books and then go my way.
He didn't say something that produced a fight. Well, that's just a little illustration that you hear from time to time where we're doing things for self. That's what covetousness is, isn't it?
So the basis for our walk through this world, our Christian walk, is divine revelation. As Bill brought out in the first part of the the epistle, he sets before us the truth. And we often have said that in the epistles, you get the doctrinal part of the epistle at the beginning, and then in view of the light that has been given, the revelation made, then you find that there's a practical exhortation in connection with our walk. And so the basis for our walk is divine revelation. We're not going to know how to walk through this world.
Again, if we don't open this book and read it, God has given us, uh, light for our pathway. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. But the motivation is what we have in the second verse, and that is, uh, the heart must be affected. And so as we think of the love of Christ, that's really the springboard or the motivation. I was thinking of it in connection with the verse Lemoyne pointed out in.
Romans chapter 12. What is the motivation for us giving ourselves as a living sacrifice?
It's to realize what Christ has given for us. It's to realize that in love Christ gave himself as that mighty and supreme sacrifice.
And in the measure in which we enter into that in our souls and it touches our hearts, I say that is going to be the springboard or the motivation then to give our lives in service for him. But you know, there's a lot of people that are sincere. A Christian may be very sincere. They may have a heart that goes out to Christ, but they need light for their pathway as well. We need light and direction. We might be sincere in something, but sincerely wrong. I just want to point out without.
Caught very with very little comment, I want to point out seven scriptures in Ephesians that bring before us our walk. You can meditate on these, but they're very important because again, as Bill said, we have an Ephesians, perhaps the highest, the deepest truth committed to man. But they're also in light of it, 7 exhortations in connection with our walk. The fifth one is in our second verse of our chapter, but just back up to the second chapter.
The first one is in connection with our past walk, what we were by nature verse two of chapter 2, wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world. That is, he reminds these Ephesians brethren who'd been saved by grace, and we're now positionally seated in heavenly places in Christ. He says now remember there was a time when you walked according to the course of this world then in.
Chapter in verse 10 of the same chapter For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them now in the, uh, interim versus he has brought before us very clearly that we're saved not by works, not of works, lest any man should boast, but we're saved by grace. But after we're saved, we are to be careful to maintain good works. There ought to be.
That evidence in our walk that there has been a work of grace, umm, in our souls. Then go over to chapter 4 and verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or calling for with your calls. We've been called to a wonderful calling. We're heavenly citizens. We're the children of God. There's the walk that is in keeping with what has been laid down in the earlier chapters.
Of the epistle. Then you have the 4th one in verse 17.
This side, therefore this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. In other words, he says, don't go back to the way you once walked.
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And the way others are walking around you, unregenerate man, he has to remind them, He has to stir them up. Then we have our exhortation in the verse. We have been considering walk in love and then just to drop down to we'll get to it later. But the eighth verse, the end of the verse, walk as children of light. We've been brought into the light. We're to walk in that way in keeping with that. And then we'll get to the 7th one in the 15th verse. See that you walk circumspectly. So just to show.
That our walk is very, very important. And as these verses we're about to consider and have been considering are taken up, remember that we need these exhortations, brethren, because the flesh in a believer is just as rotten as the flesh and an unbeliever. And the tendency, if we're not careful, if our hearts aren't motivated by the love of Christ, if God isn't before us and Christ is our object, then the tendency of our hearts is going to be to go back to those things.
That we have left behind, and that ought not to characterize those who have been brought into this wonderful position by the grace of God.
It's like to make a mention of the fact that, uh, someone has mentioned that, that the talk, it sometimes doesn't match the walk. You know, you've heard the saying that, uh, he, he talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. Now you could actually substitute as our brother is bringing out these verses, uh, talk. Uh, you can put the word talk in there. And so when we look at our birth and talk in love.
Well, sometimes our talk far exceeds our walk, and you know the world looks upon us.
And also our Christian brethren looked upon us. Uh, uh, there's a little verse to say as you were writing a gospel, a chapter each day by the deeds that you do and the words that you say, then read what you write with a faithless or true say. What is the gospel according to you? Uh, I've heard so many people use that phrase here lately. Even the, the news media one time I was, uh, listening then they, they said about this person, he, he talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. So I, I believe as imitators of Christ.
The Lord Jesus said that he that has seen me has seen the Father.
Other words, I mean, he's the one that if you look at his life, we're to walk as he walked. What? How did he walk the lowly? He said in that verse that that that came to me this morning in the prayer meeting. I am meek and lowly of heart and the Lord Jesus did not identify himself with the great and mighty of this world, but with poor illiterate fishermen and he didn't aspire to be great.
He, he was a, a, a loving, kind, gracious savior condescend the men of lowest state. I mentioned that because I've met some Christians in different denominations. It seems like they aspire to people who are high up in the world. And I think that what we ought to re realize is that the scripture tells us that we're the condescend to mentally doesn't matter how, uh, spiritual you may claim to be or this lady claims to be, but.
She hasn't learned that verse that she should condescend to men of low estates.
And so.
It's a beautiful verse, but it but the thought I want to leave with us is this. Let us not only talk to talk, but let us walk the walk.
The Lord Jesus that walked the walk perfectly, didn't he? And I'd like to call attention in that verse 2 about The Walking and love that were to imitate it says Christ also hath loved us, that is his love was towards us. But it refers to God then and the rest of the verse and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor, that love that Christ had for his church.
Wasn't just directed towards us, but it was directed towards God and he took our our place there, giving himself up not to us or for us just, but it's to God he gave himself. And so the love here is responding to God, Godward as well. That's the self sacrificing. He wasn't just doing this for what he could get out of it. He was doing it for his God as God.
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On our behalf so that we could be presentable to God, He gave himself so we could be presentable as a sweet sacrifice He gave himself. And so I think that's helpful in connection with the next verse. It's a rather abrupt change here from verse two to three where you immediately turn over to fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, because those are the opposite.
What is fornication? It's self pleasing. It's getting something for yourself.
Well, when you have a happy marriage, usually reference is made to who gives this bride what? Where did she come from? From her parents and they usually give her away. But where did they get them from God who instituted marriage, God, who is love God. And so the source, it goes back here, reference to God. And so we need to have this in before us.
And not just to be struggling to keep ourselves from these unclean things here mentioned in verse 3.
If our souls are occupied with what God has given and him as the source, like the Lord loved, it says of the servant of that, that who was wanted to be a servant forever. I love my master, my wife and my children. He loved all three. And so that love to all three, uh, caused him to do what he did to take on that.
That, uh, perpetual servitude for those he loves. And that's what Christ did. And so love always seeks the good and blessing of the object.
We perhaps may become dry or find difficulty in loving umm, as Christ loved, unless we get back to the source and the example of the Lord Jesus. So I think to me it's helpful to see how that umm, uh, fornication, covetousness really deprive God of His rightful place.
And are seeking the pleasures of those sins without reference to God. Would you go on in verse four that that's part of verse three, Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Well, that's going back up to God to the giving of thanks. There is that. Uh, what were your thoughts, brother Chuck?
Well, that was under. I wanted you to continue what you said.
Bill, help us.
Well, I don't know that I can add much to it. It's pretty straightforward and I guess I speak for myself. I have to hang my head because I have a penchant for some of this foolish talking sometimes and I have to admit it. But the question is, I suppose here is Christ. And when it talks about a sweet smelling savor for God, it refers, does it not, to those what we sometimes call voluntary or sweet savor offerings in the Old Testament?
The burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, those that were offered directly to God without in that sense, so much reference to sin, although you can't separate in that sense sin from them, but they were offered up to God as voluntary offerings and they were for His enjoyment, not so much for anyone else. The sin offering, the trespass offering, they were compulsory. If there was sin that had been committed, it had to be offered. But the others.
We're a sweet smelling savor to God, and they were for his eye. And I suppose the question at least it comes to my own soul, whatever I do, whether it's something as serious as fornication or whether it's something as it mentions here, like jesting or foolish talking. And of course filthiness goes beyond that. Is it a sweet smelling savor to God? Or is it really just the reflection of part of that old sinful self that occupies itself with nonsense which ultimately can lead to difficulties?
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The blessed Lord was never foolish or digesting the very ideas is repulsive. He was the Man of sorrows going through a world that has turned its back on God.
Through the words, but rather giving of thanks.
They, uh, giving a thanks, a thankful spirit is from being occupied with the Lord Jesus and God and all that he's done is the second verse there that our chapter were occupied with his great sacrifice.
Than giving a thanks will replace all these other things in verse three and four.
Just like to call attention to uh, Proverbs chapter 23 and justice read one verse there in verse 15 of Proverbs 23 and it's, uh, ties in well, I believe here it says, my son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. And so the sun is mentioned. That term, my son is mentioned, I believe 24 times in the book of Proverbs and has the thought of being the builder of the family name, building upon the family name, walking in wisdom. And there is a course of wisdom through this world.
And it's the course of following the Lord Jesus who is personified by being the power and the wisdom of God through the scene and soul. He, he just, uh, gives that instruction for the to the heart as beloved children walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us. And so he walked in perfect wisdom through this world and this world walks in foolishness. And the sooner you and I realize that that this world is filled with foolishness and sin is foolishness of the natural heart of man opposed to God.
And we need not have anything to do with it. And so we identify with Christ himself as beloved children, and we walk in the dignity as the sons of God through this wicked world. And so if we walk in wisdom, what does it say says here in Proverbs 23, if thine heart be wise, if our affections were taken up with the wisdom of God, Christ himself, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. And so we often say that, you know, there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth. And that's true.
But there's joy in the heart of the Lord Jesus himself and God himself as he watches and he sees each individual believer walking in wisdom through this wicked world, following the Lord Jesus in the path of faith.
Never says the Lord laughed.
Says in the Psalms, it says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at man's under inability to oppose him.
But he was things are too sober down here. Things are too important. And audiences, they laugh at the most foolish, stupid, idiotic things. And yet that's entertainment to this world. We have something infinitely better. Should never spend our time doing that. I I'm I'm guilty. Guilty that you can say you're guilty.
But he never did that.
We've been talking about the negative things here. I'd like to get on with the things that are good. So verse seven of our chapter says, be not ye therefore partakers with them. For we were sometimes darkness, but now.
Are we, are ye like in?
Uh, light in the Lord Waukee as children of light. So I, I would just like to suggest that, uh, we talk about things that are more positive. This world is so full of darkness these days. We're surrounded by it. If we're, if we belong to Christ, we have a sensitivity to that. We're repelled by it and the, and this connection. So versus the five pole and 2nd Corinthians.
Uh, came to mind and that is, uh, it's in Second Corinthians chapter 5. It's familiar verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
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All things are a God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation about there, but where no preachers. All things are passed away, all things are become new, and I think for myself, I would like to see more emphasis, you might say, on the good thing to be simple concerning.
The the things that are bad, white concerning the things that are good. We've been talking about the Lord Jesus as the perfect example.
And in some of the comments that have been made, I was thinking of an example in the life of the Lord Jesus where He rejoiced. But it wasn't foolishness. Just just let me read a portion in Luke 10. And in fact, I think this is the only time you read in the life of the Lord Jesus that He rejoiced because it's been pointed out He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He groaned and wept as He traversed this earth and saw the effects of sin.
And what he had brought in. But just let me read this verse. Luke 1021.
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and then notice this and said, I thank thee, O Father. Now there's the perfect example. It was a very difficult point in the life of the Lord Jesus. He had to look around earlier in the chapter on the cities he come to bless and those he loved, and because they had rejected him, he had to pronounce judgment and woe. But he rejoiced in spirit. Did he feel it? Of course he did, but he rejoiced in spirit.
There was this sobriety, but there was a rejoicing. Why? Because he could say, Father, I thank the old Father. He committed it all into the hand of the one who he knew was in control of the whole situation. And so in the midst of these things that are listed, and I agree with Brother **** we don't want to go back and go over these things we that it's defiling, but we need to be aware of them. But in the midst of it, he says, but giving of thanks. And I believe, brethren, one of the things that will preserve us in our Christian pathway and in our purity of walk.
Is a thankful spirit to always have before us the blessings that are ours in Christ Why these Ephesians had had a vast panorama of spiritual blessings brought before them earlier in the epistle where they thankful are you and I thankful I would however, like to make this one comment before we go on and it presses on my soul and I'm going to make it and that is that I believe the great difficulty today not just for those who are younger but for all of us is.
That the line of demarcation between right and wrong in the world today is not just blurred, it's been completely removed and taken down. I've sometimes said that when I went to high school in Smiths Falls, there was still, albeit somewhat blurred, there was still a line of demarcation between right and wrong, and moral evil was looked at to some degree for what it was. And so on.
But when I sent my children to school, it wasn't that the line was blurred. The line was removed. Rather, we live in not in an immoral society, but in our moral society. You know, in Latin, if you put a in front of the word, it gives it the opposite meaning. Now I just want to say this too about foolish jesting. And I want to be very careful because I, I'm as guilty of this as anyone. But, you know, this is the day when the enemy is using amusement.
To keep first of all, the unbeliever desensitized to his ruin, and to keep the Christian from enjoying their portion in Christ. You know the word Muse.
It's a Latin word to think, and the word amuse, I say, means the opposite. It means not to think. And when has foolish amusement ever permeated?
Society like the day in which we live. And I, I say this, I can only point at my own heart and leave my finger pointed there. But rather, we need to be very, very careful that we don't get taken up with the amusement of this world. It's going to rob us of our enjoyment of our heavenly blessings. It's going to detract us from being followers.
Imitators of God, it's going to take our hearts away from the love of Christ and it's going to lead to all kinds of disaster, moral ruin and disaster in our lives. Let's be careful that we don't become engulfed in the amusements of this world, but that as we walk as the children of light has been pointed out in our eighth verse, that we walk as those who are heavenly citizens and not part of this world. I I want to say I object to what some of the things that have been said.
00:45:14
If if we can ignore the negative versus who are we to ignore them? They're there to tell us what's hateful to God.
For this know that no *********** nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater. And what does he say about such half? Any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God. Such are outside of that spirit of blessing.
That no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
A child of disobedience is not gonna end up in heaven, is not the Lord's, and they're characterized by these evil things.
Thee not ye, therefore partake with them. We have to be warned about this because we have a nature that will respond to it. We're not capable of saying I'm gonna choose this verse. It's positive and this one is negative, no.
We need them all. We need the buses and we need the minuses because God has given them to us to warn us so that we don't, uh, disallow that which I may be guilty of. So I don't like that one. No, we, we need the whole scripture. Yeah, but we have to have it balanced, don't we? And that's what the Word of God is. It's perfect balance. What umm, brother, umm, Jim was bringing about the difference between the past generation and the present generation, I think is really, I believe is really illustrated in these versus 4:00 and 5:00.
Umm, verse four is, uh, the, the, these acts that are not becoming, they le left unchecked lead to verse five. And perhaps in a large way, our, our society has bridged that gap And there's, there's not the check. It's openly practiced these things today. And so we have to deal with it in that way. Uh, and so God always wants us to stop evil.
As soon as it appears and we have, we are confronted this and we have to deal with these issues in life. And it's good if we can deal with them in the small things before they advance and progress like in verse five. Uh, and so in our individual dealing with this, if we don't take the heart verse 4.
Umm within umm we are umm liable to be drugged down into verse 5.
Because evil will overcome us and our old nature will follow its inclination under the power of Satan and the world around us. And so we do need to, to deal with that. I'm, I, let me brethren, just add a thought. I, I like to keep things balanced, uh, in connection with, uh, foolish gesting, jesting and are talking and jesting, uh.
I don't believe that all humor God forbids. I believe there is a godly way of practicing humor, irony and sarcasm and so on. The very verse that was quoted from the Psalms about God laughing, there is a certain sentiment there that is used in a godly way. What this verse is is describing is.
Using these things apart from God to entertain the heart of man, and that is wrong. It's leaving God totally out and being occupied, occupying souls. You walk into a bar or someplace like this where these things are liberally practiced and they're jokes and the humor and the whole environment leaves God on out. If one person would stand up and quote a verse of Scripture, it would run the whole thing. It would run the whole atmosphere.
Because they have an environment that is seeking to entertain the heart of man apart from God. And that is wrong, brethren. And we can fall into that and may the Lord keep us from it. Uh, so we have to deal with these things, but we have the positive side too. And the example of the Lord Jesus and walking in love and the, the godly, the way God instituted marriage and the various relationships that we.
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Enjoy are able to enjoy in life. There is a holy way of enjoying these things.
And so may the Lord help us to to be occupied with that. And it's seeing both sides really helps us to steer a course of walking as as Christ walked. Here I want to read in connection with these thoughts from 2nd Corinthians 12.
Verse 20.
We're right here. Now. This is the same writer that wrote Ephesians 5, where I fear lest when I come talking about the Corinthians, there was a case of moral incest and so on. Evil that he had 10 foot away from among yourselves, that wicked person. But at the end of this epistle he says, I fear less when I come, I shall not find you such as I would now. The way he wants to find them is the way it's outlined here in Ephesians 5. And they have to be warned against those things they used to do.
And that I shall be found unto you, such as ye would not, lest there be debates, envyings, rats, stripes, backbiting, whisperings, swellings, tumults, and less. When I come again, my God will humble me among you. He was their father. They had many instructors, but only one father. He was. He had a father's heart. And he says, God will humble me among you, and that I shall be wail many.
Who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. There was more to be done there at Corinth. And so it was necessary to bring these things out and say that's what you used to do, that's what you came from, that's what you were. And you still have that nature that likes to do those things. It has to be curbed and stopped and that's you gotta put all the scripture together and.
That's why I wanna keep the balance here, right?
Bring something else. So Brother Chuck, while we're on the subject, just so we're clear on it, when it says in verse 5 here that a covetous man who is an idolater doesn't have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God, what? What does that mean? If a believer finds covetousness in his heart, does that mean that he loses his salvation? Or what's the force of that expression that he has no inheritance in the Kingdom? Well, I think of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold the land for so much.
And they lied about it because they wanted to keep some of that for themselves. They wanted an inheritance, so to speak. But here he says, those that do that they, they, uh, have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God. The things that really count, you don't, you're, you're forfeiting that inheritance for something like who wants to be a millionaire and all that kind of nonsense. Does that help? So Ananias, we probably, we believe Ananias is possible that they were saved souls that probably were real, genuinely saved souls. And they'll be in heaven, but they'll lose, they lost out.
In, in, in their act of they did of selling and keeping back part of the price of the land and the God, the government of God cut them off.
In this life, uh, and so in, in that act, they lost out that inheritance. I wanna add to that, Doug, I've been asked so many times, a certain person is named that has fallen into some kind of a sin that is bad. And they'll say, do you think he said it? And my answer is, now you want me to play God? The Lord knoweth them that are his. I don't know if he's saved or not. He's done something, which if he pursues that and consistently goes on with that, no, he's not. But I, that's not for me to judge.
What, where to judge, is the act itself that's wrong and the act what the act of Anodio and Sapphire was so serious that they lied to the Holy Ghost?
That was worse than anything else that they had said they lied to. The Spirit of the Spirit of God dwells in the assembly, and to lie to the Holy Spirit is the most serious offense. Well, umm, I think that helps. I'd like to mention the fact I think here it more or less deals with the lifestyle. There's no one in this room has never covered it. Covered just simply means desire. Now, Scripture tells us we should covet the best gifts and so forth, but there's no one in this room.
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Has never told a lie. That's just a little baby. There's no one in this room has ever coveted something that God did not want you to have.
But basically, I think what we're talking, what he's saying here, because in versa 80 says for ye were sometimes darkness. There's not a sin, uh, that you and I or any other human being is not capable of, but by, by God, by God's grace. So when, when it tells us here about, uh, ************ and, uh, uh, and uh, cognitive people, that's people I feel that have adopted this as a lifestyle.
And uh, of course we, I remember and I think I mentioned this before.
But I, I was talking to a man, he was quite a very powerful man and it was a very mean man. He was in you don't want to cross him, but I don't know how I ever got the energy to say what I said to him. His wife was complaining to me about he was going to leave her and so forth. And then he was complaining. The fact that he didn't his wife was, this was I, you know, but I, I, I quoted that scripture to him that marriage is honorable in all things and the bed undefiled.
But ************ and adulterers, God will judge. Now I can say I, I don't know how I got the nerve to do it. Only the Holy Spirit, I think maybe forced gave me the power to do that. But the The thing is that there's a man who has adopted this as a lifestyle and, and, and if a Christian falls into sin, any of these sins, there is forgiveness. God Forgives and we should forgive. I've heard the cases where.
Uh, someone brings up the fact, oh that that brother did this or that brother did that and and they still hold it against him. But listen, we're all belong in hell but for the grace of God. And so as a brother sins and falls alone a wayside.
There is restoration, there is forgiveness, and who God Forgives, we should forgive. But he's making a contrast here in these verses, isn't he? He's contrasting what characterizes the children of disobedience in the end of the sixth verse and what ought to characterize the children of light in the end of the eighth verse. And what he's saying is that these things that characterize the world, that characterize the children of darkness, Why, brethren, they're not so much to be named among Saints.
These things aren't to characterize you. You put off the works of darkness. You are the children of light now. And these things ought not to come in and characterize us in our individual lives and in our relationships one to another. And so that's why he's speaking about this one who doesn't have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God, because the children of disobedience don't. And but, but we're not the children of disobedience. We're the children of life. Now I will say this.
That for those who know are the children of light. And allow these things to come in. There will be loss at the judgment seat of Christ, not lost as far as our salvation, but there will be loss as far as that which He can reward us for and that which will be our part in the Kingdom. Because our faithfulness now is going to place us, give us a part in the administration of the Kingdom. Be thou over 5 cities. Be thou over 10 cities.
And the Kingdom is the manifestation of the rewards that are given at the judgment seat of Christ. According to those rewards, we will have a part. Now, brethren, He wants us not just to have an entrance into the Kingdom, but He wants us to have an abundant entrance. And if we allow these things that ought not to be named amongst us, ought not to characterize the children of light, if we allow these things in our lives, there's we're not going to have an abundant entrance. Oh yes, we're going to be there.
Oh yes, there's going to be something that He can reward us for. Oh yes, we're going to have a part when Christ comes forth to reign. But He wants us to have an abundant entrance, not just an entrance. But I think we missed the point if we don't see here in the context that he's contrasting that which characterizes the children of disobedience and that which ought not to characterize the children of light. Will you agree, Doug? Yes, and there's the children of disobedience, verse 6.
And, and verse eight children of light and those are that's a position before God. But a child, a child of, of light can fall into sin and he can practice one of the things on the list he needs and he needs to be restored. And God is faithful with such. But because, uh, we are children of light, we ought not to practice those things. And we have a good example of that in the two of the 12 disciples.
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The Lord said one of you going to is going to betray me, Peter said. Though I'll deny thee, not yet, will not I?
It turns out that he, he said. I know not the men. I don't know him, I don't know him. Three times he went out.
Judas went out, sold his master for 30 pieces of silver. Who was saved and who wasn't?
Judith hanged himself.
Peter repention with tears. He was real, and yet he did a terrible thing. I've done terrible things. Have you?
I remember a brother speaking about someone who had fallen into sin and he referred to them as as a person who wasn't wasn't concerned about their present condition. That's a bad sign, brethren. If we fall into sin and it isn't bothering us if we fall into sin and we're miserable, that's a good indication because God is dealing with this and there's something in us that shows that we are are really the Lords. So that's what verse seven is be not ye therefore partakers of them who?
The children of disobedience, he says you're the children of light. Now don't go back and partake of what the children of disobedience go on with every day. Somebody's illustrated this way. A pig lives in the mud. A sheep might fall in the mud, but a pig lives in the mud. The unregenerate man, he only has the old nature. And so he goes on with the lust of the flesh and fulfilling the lust of the flesh and of the mind and so on. But we have divine life, we have the Spirit of God, we have the light of God's word. Now he says, you who have been brought into this position of light, don't be partakers with them. And that's why I say he's making a contrast here.
Yeah, I'll never forget when my optometrist, I got saved as a freshman in college, I needed glasses and uh, he gave me a book to read and uh, it was a book put out by the Moody Press and it says Heaven or Hell, which, and I read that book. And in that reading of that book, the author said.
Which one is it for you, reader? Heaven or hell? And I said I'm going to hell.
I'm going to hell.
But that wasn't very long, but I could say I'm going to have it wasn't very long. And that's what verse eight was. You were sometimes darkness. I was darkness, but now light in the Lord. So now I'm to walk as children of light. It's true of all of us.
Brother Chuck, you mentioned about the Peter Finney, the public restoration of Peter, I believe was the fact that the Lord wanted to reinstate him, of course. But Can you imagine that if he did not have that public restoration, they would have been brethren who would have come along and said, wait a minute, Peter, you did a terrible sin. YYY You take a, a, a back seat here. That was John 21. Yeah. And so I think www.whatweseethere.
Is that when God Forgives and restores our Lord Jesus that that we should not be like those people who would have been with Peter, David, Peter, stand up and say, wait a minute, Peter, don't you remember you, you, you, you designed your very Lord that died for you. What right do you have, you know, to do this or do that? So, so we'll let you remember that coming back, that if a Christian does fall into sin, when he's forgiven, we forgive him and we don't let that.
Re retain it I I remember I just had a just telling my wife of this amazing story.
But I disagreed with a certain person in in on a certain issue. It wasn't having to do with, with, uh, with, with Christianity. But she said to me, she said I had trouble with you ever since we were in grade school.
So, well, this is something this poor woman has Harvard something against Mayford for 60 years, you know, And so we shouldn't do that. I mean, we should, we should be able to to if God has forgiven them, he's forgiven us.
We should forgive them too. It does say of the other ten. They all forsook him and Flint.
So they couldn't point the finger at anyone but themselves. That's what we're made out of in the flesh.
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Just wanted to comment on this first at the end of it, at verse eight, it says walk as children of light. And uh, in the 84th Psalm you get a little indication of those that walk in darkness. But uh, in, in verse 10 of the 84th Psalm, it says this a day in thy course is better than 1000. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell on the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Oh, Lord opposed, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. What we find when Eve fell in the when man fell in the garden of the Lord. It says this I'm just gonna read it. It says in verse 6 just partway through she took of the fruit thereof. She took she reached out with her hand and took something that God hadn't given her. And so the the one the child of light walks in the light and knows the father of all lights with whom is no variableness, no shadow of turning every good gift, every perfect gift cometh from above.
And he lifts up his hand under the Lord for a blessing, and it says this, he walks in faith, and he says no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And so we need to have a sense in our souls that everything that we acquire in this scene, whether it's a piece of clothing or a vehicle that we can use for the family or for the Lord's people, we ought to have a sense that we're receiving it from the Lord and not taking out and reaching with our hands and taking something that God didn't give us and in faith.
The child of light says to himself, and understands by faith, that no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly, and so he waits for the Lord to provide. And so This is why he says here that.
In verse 10 proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And so we need to have a sense that what we have.
Is either going to be acceptable under the Lord or unacceptable and in the course of life?
Is going to be acceptable to him or unacceptable?
Give a thought to brother. Verse 9 says the fruit of the spirit. Darby has it, the fruit of the light. Have a thought on that.
Fruit of the light is in our goodness and righteousness and truth. It's the same, same truth, but.
Well, the Spirit of God, if we walk in the Spirit, we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. But it had just said in verse eight block is children of light for the fruit of the light that goes together, doesn't it? But it's all by the Spirit of God. It's a wonderful thing to realize that we have a power that lives within us to keep us from sinning. We have the flesh, yes, but we have a new life and the power of that new life, which is the Spirit of God.
To enable us to walk above sin.
I suppose these verses exemplify what we get in the last verse of Romans 12. We don't need to turn to it.
Uh, it says there be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And so here the fruit of the light is what it is, that which commends itself first of all to the Lord, but also commends itself to.
The consciences of those who may be walking in darkness, and so it says they are going on to verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. What does that mean? Well, there is time, of course, for me to open my mouth and reprove someone, but I suggest that perhaps more of the force of what we have here is a life.
Lived for the Lord.
And an atmosphere, if I could use that expression, that surrounds the believer that by itself reproves. And then there's the opportunity. We think of a man like Lott who was living in Sodom, and he had a righteous soul, it tells us. And he was vexed from day-to-day with the terrible things that were said and done in Sodom, but he had no testimony that he could offer. And when he tried to warn his sons in law.
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Of the judgment that he knew was coming, they didn't have any any ear for him. It says they, what does it say? They seem to him as idle tales or something like that. I can't remember the wording. But anyway, he had no moral power to reprove them or to say anything because he was doing the very thing he shouldn't have been doing. He should have been separate. But here you and I are called upon to be in the world, but not of it. And there's a character that, as it says in verse, thi verse 13, all things that are reproved.
Are made manifest by the light. If the light shines, it will illuminate.
What is wrong? And it won't have to be my forcing myself in getting into a knock down, drag out argument with somebody so much. Yes, there may have to be some pretty straight words sometimes, but it's really what I live that carries far more weight than what I say, doesn't it? When we get to heaven, all the negative things in this chapter won't apply. We won't be capable of sinning anymore.
But we are now, so they're there, and we need them to warn against allowing that nature to act. But that's going to be the greatest, one of the greatest privileges of heaven is it'll be impossible for us to sin because we'll only have the nature of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the flesh will be forever gone. What? What a wonderful day to wait for.
All right.
I might just tell a little story that's told a long time ago when I was a young man in a reading meeting of a, a brother who in the workplace, uh, he was confronted with the world. And as usual, there were times of jesting and fi and unclean jokes. And one day us UN unclean story was told and everybody laughed in the workplace, but the brother didn't laugh. He was quiet.
In silent and somebody called attention brother, or they didn't call him brother, but so and so did you didn't laugh.
And his comment was?
Man, I live in the presence of God. I live in the presence of God.
The laughing stopped It. It was a reproof to them, just in a simple way. In a simple way, uh, it, it. He didn't have to say more. He didn't have to say this, and this is wrong. Uh, uh.
That was understood and it's living in the presence of God and so that I, I, I really believe that's the, the reproving here have no fellowship lot. He might, his life must not have been that separate. Maybe he laughed at the jokes. I don't know. Uh, there was something about him that he was not separate so that when he did speak his, his life testimony did not have power.
Abraham was separate from that. We live in the world, but if we are of the world while we're in it, we will lose our power and the testimony to reprove.
We are in the light, that's positionally, we are the children of light. We are light in the Lord. And 1St John brings that out very clearly that that is our position. But if I can just use this illustration, because I think what the statement Doug made is the key, living in the presence of God. And this is perhaps a feeble illustration, but if someone is put in a room in an institution and the authorities are afraid that that person is going to do something they shouldn't, what do they do?
They put a light on him 24 hours a day so that he's consciously in the southeast, consciously in the light at all times. And brethren, in the measure in which you and I walk, in the conscious sense that we're in the presence of God and that we are in the light, we'll never get out of the light. We are positionally, we are light in the Lord. We're the children of light. But if we lose sight of the, the conscious sense that we're in the presence of God.
And that we are the children of light. Then we're going to allow these things. If we're not careful, these things are going to come into our lives that we've spoken of.
In this meeting at some at some length, and the Lord Jesus too, in connection with our testimony, he said ye are the light of the world.
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When the Lord Jesus was here, he could say I am the light of the world. But he also says in Matthew's Gospel, in that same book, he says ye are the light of the world. Do you know the Lord Jesus is not the light of the world today?
The Lord Jesus is back at the right hand of God, but he has left his people here to be a testimony and a light. And what light is this world going to see? It's really only what is reflected in your life and mind. And especially in a day when they've closed the pages of the light of God's Word, they don't read it. It's not in the schools, they don't pray. They they've turned their back on the light of God's Word. What light is this world going to see in our neighborhood at work?
At school, wherever we operate from day-to-day, the only light this world is going to see is what is manifested in your life and mine. Are we walking then as the children of light? You know it's interesting in contrast to lot that of Daniel, when they tried to find something against him, they finally concluded his coworkers in the 6th chapter. They finally concluded that they could find nothing against him except it be concerning the law of his God. You know, that's about the equivalent of you going off to school or going off to work.
We're going to the store and people trying to find some fault with you and they finally conclude, you know, the only thing we have against that person really is that they're a believer. They're a Christian. Now, isn't that, wouldn't that be a good testimony? I, I would cover the testimony like that. And that's why it says in Philippians 2 That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. We live in a crooked and a perverse nation. It's a Dark World.
And the moral and spiritual darkness is deepening over the Western world every hour. But we're to be here, to be harmless and without rebuke, because we are to shine as lights in this world until the Lord takes us out.
Uh, and I'd like to suggest that we can carry away from this session 2 verses in this portion that illustrates the what I believe is the real message that was intended. The first verse, of course, is the first verse of the chapter be therefore followers of God as their children. The second verse is verse 7.
Thee not ye, therefore partakers with them those that are spoken of in the year earlier verses.
And that's why I thought and made the comment before about being, uh, simple concerning good and wise. I mean, why is concerning good and simple concerning evil? But the point I believe with this portion is in counting out all of these sad behaviorisms, the word to us as believers is being not part takers. We're believers. We're kept by the power of God.
He's gonna finish that work in us. We're gonna spend eternity with him. This is a word for our current ward. We're surrounded by evil. Be not partakers.
Choose your friendships carefully, your activities carefully. Be not a partaker in any of these things that we've had before us.