May
5, 2002
Ephesians 5:1-20
v. 1 - “be ye therefore followers/imitators of God”
especially in
reference
to ch. 4:32
We ought to forgive because we have been forgiven.
“If ye do no forgive neither will your Father in
Heaven forgive
your trespasses”
- Mark 11:25
Imitate the Father in His forgiveness and loving
Spirit!
Forgiving love is one of the great glories of our
Father; it has
been made especially attractive in our eyes, because
it has
been exercised towards us, we ought to show the same
spirit.
v. 2 - “walk in love” - ordinary life be spent in
atmosphere of
love
- “even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself
for
us” - a complete self-surrender, a whole burnt
offering.
Love is the motive power to all right relations with
fellow
man. If not
love, then the wrath of God should be a motivator.
Moralities have tried to work themselves out without
divine
aid, historically, and modernly, for instance, the
phantom idea
of separation of church and state. They are powerless and the
independent moralities have as yet rendered no
appreciable
service to the world.
“an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor”
Not just an offering merely, but also the spirit in
which it was
offered - “obedient unto death” - Phil. 2:8 -
presented unto
God to satisfy His justice, fulfill His demands of His
Law,
and glorify His holy & righteous government.
God had pleasure in the death of His Son - Isaiah
53:10-11
Now, if God regarded with infinite delight the
sacrifice of His
Only Son, for
the sake of His brethren, is there any way in
which we can please the Father, other than following
the
footsteps of our Elder Brother, when we sacrifice
ourselves
out of love for the brethren?
v. 3 - The fumes of lust are doubly odious in contact
with
the
sweet savour of Christ’s offering!
Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness - let them not
be
named in a Christian.
When these sensual appetites get the upper hand, they
lead to terrible excess and bringing disease on both
body and mind and avenge the sin to which they have
been
impelled.
First, they tempt men to sin, and then as if in cruel
mockery, they scourge them for having sinned.
Rom. 1:27 Al
Capone, worms eating his brain,
former state health worker from college days,
Christian
County’s has high STD rate - down to 12 yr. olds,
small
College in one of the
These are sins against ourselves - Wasting our life
or body as well as dishonoring it - Prov. 5:11
These sins darken the judgment - Hosea 4:11 - this
explains pop culture in
to Judeao-Christian teaching led by representatives,
senators, a former president or sitting
justices or those of a few yrs. ago.
The corruption that is in the world through lust
is inconsistent with the Divine nature - I Peter 1:4
It thwarts the design of the Gospel which is to purify
a people unto
Himself - Titus 2:14
It provokes God’s anger - here and Psalm 7:11
“…and God is angry with the wicked every day”
The combination of covetousness with the sins of the
flesh -
covetousness means the desire of having more, greedy,
insatiable - see Ezek. 16:28
“let it not be named” - not even in conversation.
This bears on a Christian’s social relations.
“They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with
the affections
and lusts”
Hard to do, it can be done - “Christ was in all points
tempted as we are yet without sin.
I Cor. 10:13 Job
31:1,4 Prov. 2:10,16-19
v. 4 - filthiness, foolish talking or jesting -
unbecoming
speech -things with double meanings - it is proof of
the
corrupt heart for “out of the abundance of the heart
the
mouth speaketh” - modern sit-coms seem to be nothing
but this, I never watch any of them but I hear them on
advertisements with raunchy clips - This influences
American behavior – remember when not so much as the
word “damn” in the early days was allowed – this also
was an influence on
“Go and cry in the ears of
the Lord; I
remember thee, the kindness of thy youth,
the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after
me
in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His
increase: all
that devour him shall offend; evil shall
come upon them saith the Lord”
But not so know with militant Islam sneaking around
and desiring our demise.
I feel about sit-coms a lot like I do towards the
world in the
church, both situations are cover-ups - lack of
intelligence
and vocabulary in the one, lack of true spiritual
substance in
the other.
v. 5 - “For this ye know” - know well - I don’t know about
today,
with the 3rd generation of untaught & uncultured
in
the
Covetousness, the twin brother sin of uncleanness, is
denounced
as idolatry. It
is the worshipping of the creature more than the
Creator, depending on earthly substance in the place
of favor
and blessing of God.
Covetousness must receive the doom of
the idolater, instead of inheriting the kingdom, it
must die the
death. The doom
is not only future, but also the present.
The lust of greed overreaches itself; it loses all
that is worth
having - it may have lands, houses and goods but not
one
scrap in the
Covetousness is often a sin of respectability but here
it is
linked with sins of gross immorality. It is a solemn thought
the commonest of all sins is the most serious in His
sight.
Those eager to attain wealth without respect to God’s
glory
or their own spiritual good.
The covetous man transfers to riches, the love,
desire, joy,
trust and labor which God demands for Himself.
The sin is all the greater since he knows that his god
of
mammon is no
god.
v. 6 - “Let no man deceive you with vain or empty
words”
Like the young must have an outlet for their warm
feelings,
that men in business must put all their soul in it,
and that
life must be brightened with a little mirth and
jollity.
“for because of these things come the wrath of God
upon
the children of disobedience.”
Future punishment, natural punishment, deadly
diseases,
disappointment, remorse, desolation of soul, like that
which fell on
never departed from the house of David.
The Ephesians were addicted to crimes of uncleanness
and covetousness, the city filled with those of impure
imaginations, a set of men and women, who for the most
part fit for penitentiaries and state prisons. Morality
received no backing from mythology or the state, who
amorally, were morally neutral.
The wrath of God is calculated to wean men from such
sins of impurity and covetousness!
Science can never bring it about to where one can sin
with impunity, neither can psychology or philosophy!
Thus without a moral consensus, democracy cannot
exist and this is why
Sooner or later, a man who commits himself to darkness
finds he has made a serious mistake.
v. 7 - “Be ye not therefore partakers with them”
Separate from the evil - Jesus Himself was “separate
from sinners” but was always in society that He might
win sinners to God.
John 17:11-15, 20-21
Our walk is to be separate and circumspect, that we
may stand apart from the plagues that will descend
upon a doomed world.
See Eph. 5:15
A pure life will convict, it did Cain, all we have to
do and all that Abel did was carry the light – See
I John 3:12
vs. 8-9 A hard
heart is always linked with a
blinded
understanding - they two act &
react
upon one another, alternately cause &
effect. Men do not care to retain the knowledge
of
God in their thoughts and God, in judgment,
gives
them over to a reprobate mind.
Today, like the most enlightened of the ancient world,
are thus in “darkness”.
v. 10 - “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord”
By testing and experimenting - “Taste & see that
the
Lord is good” - “Prove me now if I will not open the
windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it”
v. 11 - Not even a passive attitude towards them, but
be
aggressive and expose their wickedness.
All the while “speaking the truth in love” - Eph. 4:15
This is to be done with the view of producing a
consciousness
of guilt and evil.
Now it is the opposite with the world
influencing the church?
A testimony has to be lifted up against ways that are
so
shameful that will bring down the wrath of God!
Like when a kid, the magnifying glass could be held
before
the sun to concentrate light to burn a rope, so light
concentrated from heaven upon the conscience of the
sinner will consume those things which bind him.
No fellowship with darkness, the friendship with the
world
can only be purchased at the cost of the Father’s
friendship.
“Friendship with the world is enmity against God” -
James 4:4
v.12 - A shame to speak of what they do in secret.
See Ezekiel 8:9-18
Too much pains cannot be taken by parents, school
administration & teachers, to foster the delicacy
among the young - to exclude from conversation
the faintest touch of what is unbecoming.
So much for the work of two hundred years in
America - we are reaping the effects of taking a
liberal,
Hedonistic and destructive approach to the living of
life.
For comparison - cartoon - The case against Dr. Spock.
A caricature of Bill Clinton.
Yet these situations are not beyond remedy or cure -
“He
is able to save to the uttermost that come unto God by
HIM!
Heb. 7:25
v. 13 - The influence of light - we are to be the salt
of the
earth.
v. 14 - Perhaps we are asleep - then WAKE UP!
Pop culture dreams of peace & safety, may be even
walking
in their sleep, but they need to be roused. If he knew
of his danger, he would not be asleep.
He needs to be roused but in ignorance does not want
to be roused.
IT IS THE LIGHT OF CHRIST THAT
WILL AWAKE HIM!
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us
put on the armor of light” - Rom. 13:12
We are not to spiritually “sleep in” but to be active,
to
make use of the light for the illumination of the
world.
It will work - “My word shall not return unto me void,
it shall accomplish that which I please, it shall
prosper
in the thing whereunto I sent it”
SINS OF OMISSION.
v. 15 - “See then that ye walk circumspectly -
strictly”
In a day when men had a handle on the word of the Lord
and a bridle on their impulses – The Incontinent of II
Tim. 3
“not as unwise but as wise” - Last week’s notes on
frivolity
Nothing is of more value than fixed principles, yea,
absolutes, for guiding our life.
It has been remarked that the Puritan age was an age
of
convictions, the conviction that the only true and
safe way
is to follow the will of God, for them it was work,
morality,
education, all to glorify God.
v. 16 - “Redeeming (buying) the time because the days
are
evil” -
Matt. 24:12 Matt.
13:45-46
v. 17 - My prayer - to know the will of God and do it!
v. 18 - Drunkenness is a work of darkness, a foe of
vigilance
and earnestness.
v. 19 - Songs in service and life
v. 20 - Thanksgiving - an excellent way to keep the
heart
in
tone and in spiritual shape.
Don’t do this occasionally but always!
“unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus
Christ”
To Him who has brought in the economy of grace, in
which
we get blessing in the place of wrath, for suffering
we get
a reward, for misery we get glory, where our trials
and
sorrows are turned into joy and real blessing!