Please remain standing for the reading of God's Word.
Our Scripture this evening is Ephesians chapter 5, and you'll
find it printed there if you want to follow along in the
bulletin as I read it for us. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 1 to
21. Let's hear God's Word together.
Therefore, Paul says, Be imitators of God as beloved
children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must
not even be named among you, as is proper among Saints.
Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking
which are out of place, but instead let there be
Thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this,
that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is
covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the
Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with
empty words. For because of these things the
wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them.
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light
in the Lord. Walk as children of light, 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 Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead
expose them. For it is shameful even to speak
of the things that they do in secret.
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
for anything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the
dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Look carefully then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of
the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is
debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always
and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for
Christ. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Please be seated.
This morning in the sermon looking at Ephesians chapter 4
this morning, I said that a part of the text was a direct quote
from Psalm 4. And after the service, dear
friends, came up to me afterwards was talking to me and
said, can you just help me find that Scripture?
I've turned to First Samuel 4 and Second Samuel 4 and I cannot
find it. And I said, no, it's in Psalm 4.
So let me try. Is it Psalm, Psalm, Psalm 4?
So I I realized that as I read the text again this evening,
verse 19, and needed another translation moment for you
friends, this evening's sermon has a very high bar.
I want to tell you what God's will is for your life.
I want to tell you this evening. I hope you want to know that.
And looking around the room, seeing the sheer variety in
ages, I know that at least many of you will want to know that.
Maybe you're even anxious to know that.
Should I marry him or her? What college should I go to?
Lord, would you guide me? Would you lead me?
Show me. We pray that often, don't we?
All the time. They are good prayers to pray.
And I have the answer for you tonight, here this evening.
In fact, you have the answer. We've read it together that the
big issue is there in verse 17. Did you see it?
Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's
will is. Friends, you will have
fellowship here at PCPC, one with the other.
You will have fellowship if you get this one thing right, if you
know what God's will is for you. We're about to see it together
that this was my choice of passage this evening. 21 verses.
But I'm afraid when I sat to look at it this afternoon and
began to think about the structure of this thought, I
realized that I'm just getting older and I want to slow down a
lot more now that I'm in my 50s. I want to take my time.
This is 2 big attacks to handle all in one go.
Everything around me, my life is getting slower and older all the
time. I said to my teenage son Sam, 15
year old boy, not long ago. We run together sometimes on a
Saturday morning, a 5 kilometer fun run.
And he said to me one Saturday morning, he said I'm going to,
I'm going to run with you this morning.
Daddy said, but I'm not feeling very well.
So I'm not going to run. I'm not going to run fast.
I'm just going to run it with you.
And so slowness is the mark of my life.
You know the famous John Piper quote in any, in any one thing
God is doing 1000 things. My wife says in any one thing
she is doing 1000 things while I'm doing one thing slowly.
And I think that's about right. I, I, what we, we are not going
to get through everything in this text this evening.
I, I want to just give you the shape of the text.
I want to show you how these verses work.
And then I'm going to leave you to get a good commentary and to
fill in, fill in the details. I want to show you three things.
Number one, I want to show you the main command which is at the
heart of All true fellowship #2 I want to show you the
surprising application which is the life of all true fellowship.
Two things, The main command in this text that is the heart of
all true fellowship #2 the surprising application that is
the life of all true fellowship. And the third thing actually
comes in between them. We're going to do .1.
Then I'm going to give you a beautiful illustration, and then
we're going to do .2. So the three things are two
points in an illustration sandwiched in the middle.
Let's look at the first thing, the main command, which is at
the heart of all true fellowship.
Friends, what is God's will for your life?
Do you see the main command in the text?
I love how it is laid out in the bulletin for you.
It's even clear it's right in the very first verse, the very
first sentence. The main command in this text,
friends, is copy God. You see it be imitators of God.
Friends, this evening. God's will for your life is that
you imitate him, that that you copy him.
God is fixing the world by making imitators of himself,
making little mini versions of himself.
God is fixing the world with mimics, impersonators, copycats.
That is the main command in the text this evening.
And then three times we are given our marching orders for
that command. Verse 2, we're told to walk in
love. Verse 8, we're told to walk in
light. Verse 15, we're told to walk in
wisdom. Walk in love, walk in light,
walk in wisdom. But wouldn't that be beautiful?
The the word walk is a metaphor for for living.
It simply means live in love, live in light, live in wisdom,
move forward in those things and you will be copying God and you
will be living in God's perfect will for your life.
And you will be in fellowship with me and I will be in
fellowship with you. But who should I marry?
What? What school should I go to?
Ask yourself in in those questions.
If I do this, can I copy God and wear what Christ wears as I do A
or B or C? If the answer is yes to all of
them, then friends, knock yourself.
I do any of them. Pick any one of them.
That's his will for your life. Simply that you imitate him as
you do them. Wonder if you know this evening.
There are ways that you can imitate God, and there are ways
that you can't imitate him. God has attributes that he
communicates to us which we can copy.
God is holy. God is loving.
God is good. God is just.
God is merciful, patient, gracious, faithful, truthful.
Wise. Theologians say these are God's
communicable attributes. He shares them with us.
You can imitate God in all those things, but friends, God also
has attributes that you cannot copy, that you cannot share.
God is infinite, God is incomprehensible, God is self
existent, God is eternal, God is unchanging, He is omniscient, He
is omnipresent, He is omnipotent, He is sovereign.
Only God can be those things. Those are His in communicable
attributes. Now friends, here's the thing.
Most of your misery this evening is in trying to copy the wrong
attributes of God. Are you exhausted all the time?
If so, it's because you are trying to be omnipresent, like
only God can be. Burning yourself out in life,
trying to do what only He can do, Being all things to all
people, at all times, in every place.
Friends, this evening, it's possible that your anxiety is
not because of your upbringing, your family, your circumstances.
It's because of trying to know what only God can know.
You are not omniscient. He hasn't ever promised to share
that with you. But when we strive to be like
God in any one of his incommunicable attributes, we
set ourselves up as God's rival. And you know what the name for
that is? It is idolatry.
It's what sin is, isn't it? Trying to be like God in all the
wrong ways. Adam and Eve, you can be like
God. Brothers and sisters this
evening, true happiness, deep, deep contentment, beauty,
holiness, joy, godliness, those things are finding God's
communicable attributes, imitating him in all the ways he
can be copied. Verse 1 be imitators of God.
It can be done. You can copy him, the infinite
eternal, ever living, ever blessed God here as his beloved
children, you can copy him. What does Paul say next?
Immediately you can copy him in what?
In love, in love, friends, the most supreme, sublime, perfect
example of the love of God. Look at the text is is not an
idea to wrap your head around, but it is a person to learn.
What does the text say? Walk in love as Christ loved us
and gave himself up for us, as a fragrant offering and a
sacrifice to God. On Saturday morning, I commended
this little book to everybody who began Winter Grace thinking
about fellowship. It's called, It's by John
Calvin. The book is called A Little Book
on the Christian Life. Want to want to recommend this
to you above. And I say this even though
Sandra and others are here and I've got books here above
anything else, please get hold of this little book this evening
and take it home with you. Listen to what John Calvin says
if you want to know what the Christian life is all about.
There are two main parts. First part, we need a love of
righteousness to which we are not naturally prone.
That love of righteousness has to be implanted into us by God
poured into us. Secondly, we need a model of
righteousness to stop us from losing our way in pursuit of
righteousness. And beautifully, Calvin shows
how the Lord Jesus Christ is that model of righteousness.
See, if you put your eyes on verse 2.
Friends, you know you belong to Jesus when you love others by
giving yourself up for them like He did, and when your life
smells like a beautiful sacrifice.
What did the Lord Jesus say? Here I am, I have come to do
your will. And his self offering of His
body as He took on to Himself human nature, as the eternal Son
joined himself to a tiny human embryo.
And he entered the darkness and the smallness and the weakness
of a woman's womb and his downward humiliation that
happened from that point onwards all through his life, as he
first sheds his sacrificial blood in his circumcision and
then his life of being an outcast and an embarrassment to
his family and a reject to his friends, all the way to the
cross. And as he dies alone and
abandoned and forsaken, what does his father say?
This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
He, he offers his life up to God, his Father on the cross for
his people. And his father says, yes, I am
well pleased. Yes, this is right, that the
head dying for the body, the shepherd laying down his life
for for the sheep, the bridegroom laying down his life
for the bride. Yes, says the father, the the
aroma of that is beautiful. That the fragrance of that is
pleasing. Friend, do you know what God's
will is for your life? To copy that to?
To do what He did? To walk in love like that?
To love others as Christ has loved us?
Can I put it really simply like this?
It does not matter where you work.
Are you the kind of person laying down your life for those
with whom you work with friends? The biggest shock of all?
It does not matter who you marry.
Do you love them? Are they opposite sex?
Are they a Christian? Knock yourself out.
Those are the only three things you need.
Here's the bigger question. Are you the right person
yourself for someone else? Never mind.
Are they right for you when they join themselves to you and wake
up next to you for the rest of their life?
Will they discover that they have bind themselves to someone
who gives them, gives themselves up for them, someone who spends
the best that they have on them and for other people?
Is that you? Paul is asking.
That is God's will for your life.
OK, so that is the main command, the big idea be be imitators of
God. We've done #1 Now here is the
beautiful illustration. I call it beautiful because it's
not mine. This comes from CS Lewis in Mere
Christianity. CS Lewis has a wonderful chapter
called, Let's pretend the little section tucked inside that
famous book, Mere Christianity. And what CS Lewis does is he
says, OK, let's let's just pause, David.
All this talk about putting on clothes this weekend, this idea
of dressing yourself in Christ. CS Lewis says, isn't that
actually the opposite of what we want to, to just put something
on on the outside? Like a robe that I had on this
morning and it's off and it's gone.
But put, put love on. I want love to come from inside
of me. I don't want to put love on on
the outside. Is, isn't that just pretending?
And who wants to pretend, says Lewis?
CS Lewis says this is serious business.
If that's what it means to be a Christian, to put on Christ.
I thought he changed us from the inside out, not from the outside
in. Here's what CS Lewis says
somewhere else. He says in becoming a Christian,
Christ is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as
himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to
inject his kind of life and thought into you.
And we think, well, yes, that's more like it.
What? Why this language of putting
something on isn't isn't dressing in clothes that aren't
our own just pretending? And then CS Lewis says this.
He says, friends, didn't you ever play?
Let's let's pretend as kids? Didn't you ever play let's
pretend as children? Well, what the children do?
I hope your kids do this at home, mums and dads.
They, you, you come into the room and you find them wearing
mummies, high heeled shoes, staggering across the living
room. Your children play mummies and
daddies. Your children play doctors and
nurses. They play baseball in A and I've
tried to contextualize in a Clayton Kershaw top there in in
my world, it's playing soccer in a Lionel Messi soccer top his
name on their back. And they are weaving their way
through the soccer pitch, pretending to be him.
And CS Lewis says, you know, do you know what that shows you?
The clothes don't fit yet, but one day they will.
The whole point of let's pretend it only works because there
actually is a reality for them to grow up into.
One day mum's high heels will be their high heels.
That there really is a real fireman whose uniform they're
wearing and pretend who they might grow up one day to be.
That there is a real baseball team.
There is a real soccer team. If the clothes actually belong
to a real person and you put them on oversized, not really
belonging to you. CS Lewis says yes, but one day
they will fit you will grow into them.
Listen to this, he says this. Being a Christian means that a
real person. The Lord Jesus Christ here and
now, in this very room where you are saying your prayers, He is
doing things to you. The Christian faith is not a
question of a good man who died 2000 years ago.
It is a living man, still as much a man as you and still as
much God as he was when He created the world.
It is really Him coming and interfering with your very self.
He is killing the old natural self in you, replacing it with
the kind of self He has. At first only for moments, then
for longer periods. Finally, when it all goes well
at the end, He will turn you permanently into a different
sort of thing. He will turn you into a little
Christ, a being which in its own small way has the same kind of
life as God. Friends, this evening I want to
say to you with all my heart, if you walk in love and if you walk
in light and walk in wisdom, even if those things do not feel
like they fit you, they will change you.
They will begin to change you. Yes, Christ is changing you from
the outside, from the inside out.
They will also change you from the outside in.
Friends, do not wait to become a loving person.
Sitting here this evening thinking how do I do?
How do I do verse 2 to become a loving person.
God is not going to ZAP you from heaven and make you a loving
person. Find some person to lay your
life down for and you will become a loving person.
Sacrifice yourself. That action will be the life of
Christ in you, beginning to define you, to shape you to, to
erase the old you, and the life of Christ will be growing in
you. That was the illustration.
I want to finish with this, the second point this evening.
The one main command be imitators of God is the heart of
all true fellowship #2 the surprising application which is
the life of all true fellowship. See, if you were to say to me,
OK, David, this evening, look what, what does a life of love
look like? What, what does a life of
walking in the light look like? What does a life of wisdom look
like? I would say to you, it is one
word, gratitude, Gratitude. Friends, the surprising
application in this text, which is the life of all true
fellowship, is that Paul is saying here the defining mark of
the person who is mimicking Christ is thankfulness,
gratitude. See, just put your eyes on the
text with me. Verse 4, verse 2.
Here we have Christ loved us, gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must
not even be named among you, as is proper among Saints.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking,
which are out of place. But instead, well, what would
you put there? What would you replace all those
things with? Just look at it again.
It's a, it's a really important question.
If I was writing it, if I was given the task of finishing
verse verse four, I would say instead of filthiness, let there
be purity. Instead of foolish talk, let
there be wise talk. Instead of crude joking, let
there be wholesome joking. But Paul says, do you, do you
know, friends, why we have a problem with lust?
Because we are not thankful. Did you know why we often sin in
our speech about sex? Because we are not grateful.
Not a surprise. It's not what I would say.
It's strange, isn't it? But I I thought this was really
strange, wrestling with this. Why is the life of love a
grateful life a thankful life? John John Stott says in itself,
Thanksgiving is not an obvious substitute for vulgarity.
So what is going on here? Here's what 1 commentator says.
I think this is excellent. He says this sexual impurity and
covetousness verses 3 and 4. Sexual impurity and covetousness
both express self-centered acquiring.
How can I use you for my ends? But Thanksgiving is the exact
opposite. It recognizes God's generosity
and so Thanksgiving is the antidote to that sin.
Friends, let me put that theologians commentator phrase
into simple English for all of us.
If I cannot say thank you Jesus for X, then I should not be
doing it. Now what Paul is saying verse
four, if I cannot thank God for it, I should not be wearing it.
It has no place in my life. We have Thanksgiving in verse 4.
It comes again right at the end of the passage.
Notice in verse 20. Giving thanks always.
Friends. I think Thanksgiving is the
surprising life of all true fellowship.
It's a surprising heart of all true fellowship.
The IT is very hard to use someone or to abuse someone or
to lust after someone if you stop and thank God for that
someone. It is.
It is very hard to steal from someone if you thank God for
that person. It is very hard to be angry with
someone if you stop and thank God for that person.
Isn't that it? It is very hard to objectify
that woman or to use that woman sinfully.
In my mind if if instead of doing that about her or to her.
In my mind, instead of speaking crudely about her, I stop and I
thank God for her. A woman, a person who God has
put in the world to image him, not to be used by me.
Friends, this is a way of living that Paul is holding out to us,
which says that this world in which we live is a world of
wonder, a marvel of God's goodness, not a mere list of
things that I can take and use however I like.
Do you know the famous quote of GK Chesterton?
He said you say grace before meals.
All right, but I say grace before the concert and the
opera. I say grace before the play and
the pantomime. I say grace before I open a
book. I say grace before I sketch and
paint and swim, before I fence and box and walk and play and
dance. I say grace before I dip my pen
in the ink. Do you see it in verse three,
friends? But verse 2, rather walk in love
as Christ loved us, and look at this, gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Christ gave himself up for us, a fragrant Thanksgiving to God.
That's what an offering is. He, he loved his heavenly Father
and he in his prayers, he thanked the Father for all that
he had given. Friends, do you know that this
evening that the Lord Jesus has thanked God in your place, He
has thanked God in your place. He didn't just live in your
place or die in your place. He, he thanked God in your
place. See, I think in verse 2, we, we
look at that phrase, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice and we
think it's, we think it's one phrase saying the same thing,
but it's not. It's two different things in the
Old Testament. There are guilt offerings for
sin. There are sacrifices for sin.
Things have gone wrong. Punishment must be handed out.
There must be bloodshed. But friends, there are also
Thanksgiving offerings, and we only have the guilt offerings
because we failed, first of all, in the Thanksgiving offerings.
The first Adam in the garden failed in thanking God for all
that he'd been given. Friends, if there had been no
sin in Eden, Adam would have had to bring sacrifices to God.
Not for sin, the sacrifice of praise, Thanksgiving to God.
Adam was to offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
Lord, this garden that I'm in, it is a benediction.
What a blessing. And you've given it to me, to
us. Now I will stop what I am doing
every hour. Lord and bless you for it.
Brothers and sisters, the truly human life is a grateful life.
Here's my all time favorite quote from an Old Testament
commentator, wonderful man Derek Kidner, commenting on Psalm 73.
He said this in the Garden of Eden.
The nerve that the serpent touched was to make even
paradise seem an insult. It's not incredible.
What an insight. The nerve that the serpent
touched was to make even paradise seem an insult.
This Lord, this is all you're giving us?
How dare you. I want that tree.
I want that fruit instead of gratitude to God, Adam returned
grasping for God, and all was lost.
All was lost until the last Adam, the Son of the Father, one
day would enter the world and say to God, what did he say?
Here I am. I have come to do your will to
offer back to you a life of praise and Thanksgiving.
Friends, I've been captivated today by Sandra's song that we
had this morning. Christ is the life of the world.
In Christ we offer all that He has offered.
How incredibly true. We offer all that He has
offered. He is the perfect offering,
brothers and sisters, not just his body on the cross, but his
life in the world. He offered to God to take us
back to the garden again. And so friends, this evening, be
like him, be thankful. Be thankful.
Friends, this passage is saying, can you thank God for that link
as you prepare to click on it? If you cannot thank Him for it,
do not click on it. Can you thank God for that
social media app as you scroll through?
Can you Can you thank him out loud for it and in front of
others for it? If you cannot, don't use it,
don't touch it. We should not be watching it,
sharing it, saying it or consuming it.
Sinclair Ferguson says ask in any action, how can I be
thankful for this? And you have the first step
towards a purer life. You ever thought about that?
I don't think. I don't think I have often.
What do we normally think? The health, the healthy,
wholesome growing Christian is doing what attending church,
reading the right authors, listening to the right songs,
growing in godliness and along comes the apostle Paul and says,
I'll tell you what takes somebody's spiritual temperature
like nothing else. Gratitude, Thanksgiving
Philippians chapter 4 do not be anxious about anything but
instead do what speak to God with Thanksgiving.
You know, I want to say this evening that if you have a
grumpiness problem, if you have a mood problem, if you're the
kind of Presbyterian that looks like you're cheering a wasp if
you if you if you sound like you belong to the frozen chosen, if
there is no overflowing gratitude, no giving thanks
always and for everything. If there is none of those
things, friends, the problem, Paul says, is a lack of love, a
lack of walking in light, a lack of walking in wisdom.
Your grumpy heart is not because you've had a bad day, it's
because you are not loving others.
Your own grateful spirit is because you are not living in
the light. Your Moody words are because
you're walking through life unwisely.
Well, let me leave you with this.
I want to give you my favorite John Stott's story.
Many of you will know the name of John Stott.
He was the minister of All Souls Langham place in London for over
30 years worldwide. Well known, deeply respected
evangelical leader. Tremendous gift that God gave to
us in the church, wasn't he? Some of you will know this story
that many, many years ago he had a study assistant who was
working with him. He always had rotating study
assistants. In one year he had an assistant
who was bringing Uncle John cups of tea to the table.
That's what he was known as to everybody.
Uncle John and the study assistant said that every single
time I brought him a cup of tea, Uncle John Stop would be working
at the table. I'd set a a cup of tea down.
It's very British, isn't it, A cup of tea down on the table.
Every single time I put the cup of tea down, he said, I would
hear John Stop, say, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy.
Do the next afternoon study time, cup of tea, thank you, I'm
not worthy. Thursday, thank you, I'm not
worthy. And the study assistant says in
the end, it just became the most infuriating thing in the world
to hear this man say this. One day he simply snapped and
said, Uncle John, it's just a cup of tea.
And John Stott said, ah, yes, but it's also just the thin end
of the wedge. In other words, if I stop being
grateful for this, even this, this tiny thing, it will not be
long before I am no longer grateful for this thing, the big
thing, the greater gifts, the bigger gifts.
Even this is an undeserved blessing.
If any of you ever met John Stott or heard about him or read
about him, how many of us would ever say that?
The thing that you remember about him is that he was harsh
or domineering or lied? No, he was gentle, loving, kind,
and you know why he was like that?
The answer is verse 20, because in everything and for
everything, for everything, he gave thanks to God the Father in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Friends, May God bless you and keep you.
And until that day when we become like him in all his
perfect radiant glory, until that day, may He make you and me
and us together like him. So may it be in Jesus name,
Amen. Let's pray together.
Gracious Heavenly Father, the riches of Your word are so great
we will spend forever trying to Plumb their depths.
And so I simply ask this evening that you would take something
that has been said in faltering words and to refract the light
of Your perfect word through it. Thank you that you know each and
every one of us that our lives this evening are an open book to
you. And so would you, by your
Spirit, we pray. Put your finger on each of our
lives. Show us the beauty of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the true and last second man, the true and proper
man, the last Adam in whom we now live and move and have our
being. Wonder of wonders make us like
Him. We pray all our days where we
ask it for His precious namesake.
Amen.