1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:06,280 Think back with me to the 1600s, a philosopher named Rene 2 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:10,520 Descartes. He said that humans are race 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:14,240 cogitons, which means thinking things. 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,120 So he's arguing that human beings are primarily rational 5 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,720 creatures. And our culture, following after 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:25,880 him, argues that we are primarily thinking rational 7 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:30,080 beings, and this shapes primarily who we are. 8 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:33,640 He said famously, I think therefore I am. 9 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:40,040 And with those words, he was combating a deep skepticism and 10 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:41,960 responding to it. And he, he, he was thinking to 11 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,440 himself, if everything else is false, this one thing, I know 12 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,800 that because I can think, I know that I exist. 13 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,200 And we go all the way back, 1300 years before him. 14 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,560 We go to the church fathers, we go to Augustine and our 15 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:02,160 forebears, They, they say more biblically, there's a different 16 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:03,960 story. We have a different response. 17 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:06,600 They would say we're not primarily rational creatures. 18 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,480 We're primarily something else. How would you answer that? 19 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:11,560 I'm not primarily A rational being. 20 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:16,200 I am, Augustine said, a loving being. 21 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:18,520 We're not primarily thinkers and rationalizers. 22 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,040 We are lovers. What most fundamentally moves a 23 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,200 human being, if not the mind and the reason we're moved 24 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,600 ultimately by what we love, which is why when Jesus, when 25 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,000 he's restoring the disciples that sinned, he doesn't come to 26 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,280 him three times. Jesus doesn't pull Peter aside 27 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,680 and said, Peter, do you believe in me more than these things? 28 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:40,960 He says three times, do you love me more than these things? 29 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,120 And you go and think about Jesus calling us to be followers and 30 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:47,640 disciples. If we were primarily rational 31 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,920 beings, then Christianity would be primarily a religion or a 32 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:54,640 relationship of the mind. But it's, it's not that way. 33 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:57,360 True Christian piety doesn't start with what we learn and 34 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,520 what we know with, but with what we love, which is why the Shema 35 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,400 in Deuteronomy 6 says you shall love the Lord your God with all 36 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:07,680 your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your 37 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,759 strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 38 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:13,480 And Paul's prayer to the Philippians in chapter 1 is not 39 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:15,440 that their knowledge would abound more and more, their 40 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:17,040 understanding and belief would abound. 41 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,440 But he says that your love would abound with all knowledge. 42 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,280 And there's our balance given for us. 43 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:27,120 And if you'll turn to Ephesians 5, we're turning the page into 44 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,280 Ephesians 5 this morning, coming toward the end of the book. 45 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:37,240 This is a section that is Paul forming the church by reordering 46 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,840 what they love. He's calibrating our loves for 47 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:43,360 us and therefore shaping the direction of their lives. 48 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:45,880 And you can see it happen in verses one to seven. 49 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:51,120 Read it with me. Therefore, be imitators of God 50 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:56,160 as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave 51 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,880 himself up for us. A fragrant offering and 52 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,000 sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all 53 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,400 impurity or covetousness, must not even be named among you, as 54 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,440 is proper among Saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor 55 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,360 foolish talk, nor crude joking which are out of place, but 56 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:14,320 instead let there be Thanksgiving. 57 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,920 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually 58 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:21,720 immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, 59 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:24,360 has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. 60 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:26,800 Let no one deceive you with empty words. 61 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:30,200 For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons 62 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:33,200 of disobedience. Therefore do not become 63 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,840 partakers with them. So regarding the section of 64 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,120 vices and of virtues, the medieval theologian Thomas 65 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,320 Aquinas, who's following Augustine, we've already 66 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:47,440 mentioned 900 years before him, is saying there's an inverse 67 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,920 relationship between law and virtue. 68 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:54,840 And what that means is the more virtuous that you become, the 69 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,680 more morally excellent and loving and kind and courageous 70 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,400 that you become, the less you need the the law to point at you 71 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:04,200 telling you what to do and what not to do. 72 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:06,960 So the more that you become imitators of Christ, the more 73 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,480 that you become Christ like, the less you need the 10 74 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:11,360 commandments to remind you what is good. 75 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:15,360 You are a lot unto yourself, you know, oh man, what is good? 76 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,480 So how do we do this? How do we become virtuous 77 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:24,680 people? And the church and philosophers 78 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:27,600 have answered, this is how you become morally excellent and 79 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,120 patient and just and humble and kind and courageous. 80 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:33,600 There's two ways. From the earliest church fathers 81 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:38,280 to the medieval ages to today, there's two ways you become 82 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:43,680 virtuous #1 they say is imitation and #2 is repetition 83 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:48,720 or making it a habit imitation. Look at Ephesians 51. 84 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:53,680 Therefore be imitators of Christ repetition. 85 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,280 Look at Ephesians 5 two walk in love. 86 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:02,280 Make these things a daily habit. Imitate Christ commit to the 87 00:05:02,280 --> 00:05:05,480 daily habit of ordering your life around a cross shaped love 88 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,000 and you will become a virtuous person. 89 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,120 This is spiritual progress and and moral virtue. 90 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,640 They come first looking at verse one through imitating Christ. 91 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:16,640 Look with it with me again at verse one. 92 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:21,520 It says simply and amazingly, therefore be imitators of God as 93 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,480 beloved children. This is the only place in all of 94 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,840 the 66 books of the Bible that tells you to imitate God. 95 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:32,000 You've got Paul saying be imitators of me as I imitate 96 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,080 God. But here is the is the one place 97 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,520 that it commands you to imitate God. 98 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:39,280 And we say what a what a beautiful thought that God has 99 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:41,400 given you the power and the means and the grace that you 100 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,000 might imitate him. How beautiful is that? 101 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,680 I'll just read a few of these commentators. 102 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,400 William Barclay says this is the highest standard in the world. 103 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,400 You go to Alexander McLaren, the the preacher says this is the 104 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:57,280 sum of all duty. And Dean Martyn Lloyd Jones says 105 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,280 Paul's supreme argument, the highest level of all in doctrine 106 00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:05,440 and in practice, this is the ultimate ideal that you get to 107 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,840 imitate God, however imperfectly. 108 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:11,960 So you go down and see this word imitate. 109 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,720 This is the the Greek word mimitates where we get a word 110 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:16,600 mimic. And in the ancient world, the 111 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:20,160 word meant quite literally to follow a good role model. 112 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,560 So the scripture saying you've been given the standard of Jesus 113 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,320 Christ, you've been given the the the role model and now 114 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:31,200 pattern your life after him. And it's a very interesting 115 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:36,160 thought that when you go to Judaism, they made much of this 116 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,960 idea of imitating God and they they held, what makes it 117 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:45,000 interesting is that they held a strong emphasis on the otherness 118 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,560 of God. And when we think about God, we 119 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:49,680 know we've come through Isaiah where it says that he is 120 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:52,760 transcendent and God is spirit and we worship him in spirit and 121 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,080 in truth, and he dwells in inapproachable light. 122 00:06:55,080 --> 00:07:00,960 He's completely other from us. And so if that's true, and if 123 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,840 God is all powerful and all knowing and he's spirit, how do 124 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:09,720 we imitate him? In what way do we imitate God? 125 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:15,640 And the Jews look to passages like Deuteronomy 10/12, which 126 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:17,920 says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of 127 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,480 you? But to fear the Lord your God, 128 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:24,200 to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God 129 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:25,760 with all your heart and with all your soul. 130 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:29,240 They look to the Holiness code, which is what Paul's quoting 131 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:33,640 from Leviticus 1912 that says be holy as I am holy. 132 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:38,960 And the rabbi said if we were to become like Him, we don't become 133 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,560 like Him in his power or in his omnipotence or omniscience. 134 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,640 We become like Him in his mercy and in his compassion. 135 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,680 We become like Him in sharing his love of the poor and the 136 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,200 vulnerable and loving justice and seeking mercy and walking 137 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,480 humbly. And this is what Jesus asks in 138 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,920 Luke 636 when he says be merciful even as your Father is 139 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:04,320 merciful, because in so doing you imitate God. 140 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,640 So we imitate his character, his his focus on other people, the 141 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:12,200 lack of emphasis on his self, your your sacrificial love. 142 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,320 This aligns with what we learned last week where we have all of 143 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:18,560 these moral vices that we are to put away as we put off the old 144 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:19,520 self. And there's all these moral 145 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:23,240 virtues that we are to put on as we as we image God and put on 146 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:24,960 the new self. He says you have to replace 147 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,520 falsehood with truth, replace controlling anger with righteous 148 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:31,920 anger, replace stealing with generosity, replace language of 149 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:35,440 cursing with language of blessing, replace animosity with 150 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,760 kindness. And when you do that, you are 151 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:43,200 imaging God, you are imitating Christ, and you're developing 152 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:45,880 the virtue and calibrating your love. 153 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,360 The second way we put on virtue comes in verse 2. 154 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,840 It's not just imitating Christ, but he says to use Paul's 155 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:57,440 language, we are putting on the new self, we're putting on 156 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,160 virtue. It's repetition or it's habit. 157 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:01,920 That's why he says in verse 2, you can read it with me. 158 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:06,680 Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a 159 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:09,560 fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 160 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:11,760 And of course, this is how it always is in the gospel. 161 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,960 Before Paul demands anything of you, before he makes any moral 162 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:17,680 demands on you, he goes back again in the spirit of Ephesians 163 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:20,600 one to three and he says this is who you are in Christ. 164 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,160 Before he asks anything of you, he says this is what Christ has 165 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:27,120 done for you. And you see, he grounds your, 166 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,800 your, your commitments in identity and relationship with 167 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:33,160 God. And in verses one to two, most 168 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:35,720 specifically, he grounds your identity and relationship in 169 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,640 love. He uses the word love three 170 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:40,600 times in these two verses. You can see it with me in verses 171 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,480 one to two. It's almost a a gospel in 172 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:48,040 miniature because in verse 2 it says that Christ loved us. 173 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:50,280 And you say, well, how much did he love us? 174 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,080 He loved us so much that he, he sacrificed on our behalf. 175 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:57,120 He loved and so he gave. And this is a pattern that you 176 00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,760 see all the way through the New Testament that Christ loves. 177 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:02,880 And so he gives and our response as we imitate him as we love so 178 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,640 much that we give. It's it's John 316 which we've 179 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:08,560 already heard. For God so loved the world that 180 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:13,160 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him 181 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:15,800 shall not perish but have everlasting life. 182 00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,560 So our identity is is grounded in love. 183 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,560 It's this love that it's it's saying here that that Jesus set 184 00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:25,720 on us before we were ever even born, before he even created us. 185 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,560 He set his love on us. And you look at verse one, it 186 00:10:28,560 --> 00:10:32,120 says be imitators of God as beloved children. 187 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:35,520 This is describing your state, your identity, your 188 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:39,480 relationship. You are beloved, He loves you. 189 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,520 You're an object of his love. You've been brought into a 190 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,400 relationship with him. And then the gospel response in 191 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:48,120 verse 2. So walk in love as it 192 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:51,240 categorizes your life. This is your gospel response as 193 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,640 a creature of love. Pattern your life after love, 194 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:56,320 love of God. We call this the the ordo 195 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,200 amoris, the order of loves. We love the Lord our God first, 196 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,200 we love our neighbors second, and then when there's love for 197 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:06,520 ourselves last. And verse 2 also reminds us with 198 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:11,200 all of this sacrifice language that love requires sacrifice. 199 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:16,200 If you truly love someone, you sacrifice yourself for their 200 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:17,960 interests and for their wholeness. 201 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,880 Martin Luther famously said if you were to truly imitate 202 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:25,600 Christ, then you must on some level suffer for the sins of 203 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:29,560 other people and remember that as you go and serve them. 204 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:34,680 Paul says in Romans 5 that the greatest sacrifice that you can 205 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:37,360 give, the greatest demonstration of love that you can give, is to 206 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,320 to give yourself, to give your life. 207 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:43,440 Which is why Romans 55 to 8 God shows his love for us, and that 208 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,440 while we will, we were yet sinners. 209 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,240 Christ died for us. And in the language of Ephesians 210 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:53,240 4 it says that he gave himself up as a fragrant offering, a 211 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,720 sacrifice. And then beautifully Paul takes 212 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,800 that language of of what Jesus was for us, and he uses it to 213 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:03,320 describe the same language of what we are to do for other 214 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:05,880 people. Philippians 418. 215 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,240 I'm well supplied this talking about money having received from 216 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:13,600 Epaphroditus the gifts you sent a fragrant offering, a sacrifice 217 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:17,280 acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul says in Romans that you 218 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:20,280 were to give your life as a living sacrifice which is holy 219 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:22,360 and acceptable in the sight of God. 220 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:26,640 Second Corinthians 214 Thanks be to God, who in Christ always 221 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:30,600 leads in triumphal procession, and through US spreads the 222 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:33,680 fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 223 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,480 So multiple metaphors bringing in multiple senses the the 224 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:39,720 metaphor of light. You are the light of the world. 225 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,200 So when people see you through your actions and your love and 226 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,240 your mercy, they actually see Jesus Christ in you. 227 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:50,360 And use a slightly more awkward metaphor, right, of the of the 228 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,000 senses, of the sense of smell. He says in you as you preach and 229 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,480 as you go. You are the aroma of Christ so 230 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,600 that the world smells you. They smell the Saviour, they, 231 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:00,840 they see something of him in you. 232 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:06,160 You are the salt of the earth. You are beloved. 233 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:09,320 And so we imitate Jesus. You are to imitate Jesus and 234 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:10,720 walk in love. And then you have these two 235 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,360 commandments, imitate Christ, walk in love. 236 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:18,200 And from that fountain flow all of the seven verses that you 237 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:22,280 have in front of you. So then after being grounded in 238 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:24,760 love, after being rooted in love, after been reminding of 239 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,480 the gospel and where your source of virtue comes from, he says 240 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:30,560 now there's some moral vices that you need to put off. 241 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,960 Now there are some loves that you need to reorder. 242 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,600 And what Paul is going to to give in the verses that follow 243 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:40,680 as he rebukes his own culture for their sexual immorality and 244 00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:44,320 their greed and their crude talk feels like he's rebuking us 245 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,440 because these sins that were common to the ancient world are, 246 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:50,920 are so common today. And what Paul's doing is he 247 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:55,080 doesn't want you to to look at these sins through the lens of 248 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,600 you need to will yourself to do what is right versus willing 249 00:13:57,600 --> 00:13:59,320 yourself not to do what is wrong. 250 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:01,360 It's it's not the way he's he's looking at this. 251 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:04,800 He wants you to see these sins through the lens of calibrating 252 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:08,160 your loves. Think back with me to Augustine. 253 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:12,960 He defines sin. We define sin frequently as want 254 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:15,320 of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. 255 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,480 And in layman's terms, we don't do the things that God tells us 256 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:20,600 not to when we do the things that he tells us to do. 257 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,120 And when we we violate one of those two rules, then we've 258 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,560 sinned. But Augustine says that is true, 259 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:29,360 but I want to see it through a different lens. 260 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,160 He says sin is also disordered love. 261 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,320 When your love becomes disordered from God's design, 262 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:38,920 when it's ordered toward the wrong object, when it's in the 263 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:43,880 wrong measure, when it's in the wrong order, then you find sin. 264 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,200 And so when our love of the world becomes disordered, and 265 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:50,400 Augustine says then our hearts become restless. 266 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:54,040 When your loves are not calibrated according to God's 267 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:56,840 loves, your hearts become restless because he says our 268 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,680 hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. 269 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:02,840 Oh, Lord. And so God is love. 270 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,280 And when everything flows from the relationship with God that 271 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:09,800 he's just described in Ephesians 5, one to two, there is peace, 272 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:12,680 there is joy, there is blessedness. 273 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:16,440 So Paul gives 3 areas where the churches love needed to be 274 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:18,720 recalibrated in ancient Ephesus and in that region. 275 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,120 And the same is true for us and our culture. 276 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:28,280 Number one, sexual immorality #2 greed and #3 crude joking. 277 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,880 If you'll read verse three with me, we'll start where he starts, 278 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:36,280 with sexual immorality, he says. But sexual immorality in all 279 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:40,520 impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as 280 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:45,080 is proper among the Saints. There's a word in our culture. 281 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,520 The word is erotic, and it's associated with negative 282 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:53,240 connotations in our culture. But the word comes from one of 283 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,200 the three words for love in the ancient world. 284 00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:00,920 It comes from the word Eros, which is not it's not a bad 285 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:02,320 word. It's not an evil word. 286 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:05,240 It actually just indicates a desire or an attraction. 287 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:08,120 And if you want to read more about this some love, there's a 288 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:10,920 book downstairs by James KA Smith called you are what you 289 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:13,560 love. And he says Eros is just a 290 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:16,720 rightly ordered agape love. When you're when your love of 291 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:20,320 God is in the right order, then Eros is in its proper place. 292 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:22,200 Your desires are in their proper place. 293 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:23,600 There's nothing wrong with desire. 294 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:25,320 There's nothing wrong with attraction. 295 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,360 The problem, the problem is that our erotic love must be 296 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,240 calibrated. It must be in proper order with 297 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:37,000 God's love. So sexual immorality, like all 298 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,880 sin, is enjoyment and satisfaction in the wrong 299 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,680 measure or pleasure in the wrong object. 300 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,080 And So what that means for sexual immorality is that we 301 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:50,280 place too much emphasis on sex, or we place too much emphasis on 302 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:54,560 pleasure, or we emphasize the wrong objects out of sexual 303 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,560 relationships. Sexual immorality is literally 304 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,760 the word pornea, and it's a word that describes very simply any 305 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,960 sexual activity outside of God's marriage covenant. 306 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:07,280 That's the shorthand. That's what the word means. 307 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,640 And so under this meaning come all of the vices in the vice 308 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,520 lists that we talked about last week, all the things that the 309 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,319 church is against with respect to sexual relationships. 310 00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,400 We, we are against those things. That's what this word is 311 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:22,560 describing. And remember, even as we said 312 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:25,760 last week, the church is known in the culture primarily by what 313 00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:28,440 we're against. We want to be known primarily 314 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:31,360 for what we are for. We're not primarily against 315 00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:35,080 sexual immorality. We are for truth, we are for 316 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:38,960 love, and we are for mercy. But what that means that we are 317 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:45,440 also against pornography and adultery and bestiality and 318 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:50,440 prostitution and pedophilia and homosexuality and premarital 319 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:53,640 sex. And Paul, when he writes these 320 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:55,760 things, he knows what is what he's up against in the culture. 321 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,880 He knows what the culture loves. He knows what the church is at 322 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:01,680 risk of falling into partnership with. 323 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:03,120 And he knew what their temptations were. 324 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:04,920 And if you want to know more about it, there's a book 325 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,480 Upstairs in the library by Hubbard. 326 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,920 It's called Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome, and it 327 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,760 shows all of the culture. And you're going to see all the 328 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:15,240 parallels between our culture and theirs. 329 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,000 And you'll see that theirs, if we can use modern language, was 330 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,320 more progressive than ours. And they, you see that 331 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:24,200 pedophilia was accepted by much of the culture. 332 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,120 And you see that mistresses were extremely common, and they were 333 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:31,880 seen by many as necessary for the body, much in the same way 334 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,920 that pornography today is seen as necessary for the body by 335 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,840 many. And there was another church in 336 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:42,040 town that a friend of mine pastors a few years ago, he put 337 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:44,440 up on the marquee, or rather somebody else put up on the 338 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:48,160 marquee for him. It said God hates all sexual 339 00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:51,080 sin. And it listed all of these vices 340 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:56,000 that we just listed. And the town rioted. 341 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,840 There were there were people knocking down their door. 342 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,400 They got phone calls or social media blew up. 343 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:07,520 There was threats that were made against the church, and you 344 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,960 might and probably do disagree with with how they stood for the 345 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,760 truth. But what I want you to see from 346 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:15,640 this illustration is even in this city, even in the Bible 347 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:18,360 Belt, there was a a war being waged. 348 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:22,120 The culture and the church have two competing visions of love 349 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,760 and we have two competing visions of belonging. 350 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:28,040 And So what do we do as the church? 351 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:31,320 We are the salt of the world, and so we want to exert our 352 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:35,880 preserving influence to protect marriage and we want to protect 353 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:39,040 the family because Satan is trying to pull it apart. 354 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:43,280 And we are for marriage and for family and for children. 355 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:46,920 And so we say we're not prudish. We get that rap. 356 00:19:46,960 --> 00:19:50,320 We're not prudish at all. We love sexuality when it's 357 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:52,360 rightly ordered. And we don't hate sex. 358 00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:57,440 As Christians, we love sex, but it has to be according to God's 359 00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,240 design. We love it and we enjoy it in 360 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:00,840 its context. And we're not telling the world 361 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:02,760 that they don't love or that they can't love. 362 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:07,400 We're urging them to calibrate their love and to say to love as 363 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,480 God designed. And we're not saying don't love. 364 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,400 We're saying you're, you're substituting A counterfeit and 365 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:17,680 you're loving a counterfeit. And you would be so much more 366 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,400 blessed if you would put away the counterfeit and enjoy 367 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,600 marriage and family as God designed it. 368 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:25,760 And we do this and we tell them this. 369 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:27,920 We want them to be blessed because we love them. 370 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:31,720 So if you're in this church and you're, you're tempted with with 371 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,920 any of these sins, Paul's asking you to order your loves around 372 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:38,880 God's pattern rather than the world's pattern. 373 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:41,760 Make sure your love has the right object and it's in the 374 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:43,720 right order and it's in the right measure. 375 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,320 And then Paul takes this word pornea and he couples it with a 376 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,040 higher word, a higher umbrella, more encompassing term impurity, 377 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,400 which includes all sexual sins. But then it adds other ideas 378 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,640 like drunkenness and riotous behaviour and crudeness. 379 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,000 And even the use of the word impurity is giving a nod back to 380 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,280 Leviticus 18 to 20, which was Jesus's standard. 381 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:06,480 And the apostles and the Pharisees, this was their 382 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,800 standard of sexual immorality. That was what they thought of 383 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,640 when they thought about pureness. 384 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:14,040 And it's it's winking toward that. 385 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:18,160 And he says that these sins are to be so universally absent from 386 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,960 the church that we're not even to be accused of them. 387 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,360 There must be no hint of it. He says. 388 00:21:23,360 --> 00:21:26,720 They must not even be named among you, as is proper among 389 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,440 the Saints. So the first disordered love, 390 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,680 we, we disorder it sexually. There's sexual immorality. 391 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:36,000 And then he moves to the second. And this isn't a disordered love 392 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,520 that's outwardly done with our hands and our feet, but this is 393 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,360 an inward disorder of the heart. He moves from the external to 394 00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:43,240 the internal. And he says the second 395 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:48,560 disordered love is greed. The word is covetousness. 396 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:50,040 It's the last of the 10 commandments. 397 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:52,800 It's such a serious thing. It's one of the commandments. 398 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:56,280 And what this is, is a discontentment for what you have 399 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:58,520 and a desire for what you do not have. 400 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,320 And so it's it's why he's going to say in a minute that you need 401 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:04,960 to replace discontentment with Thanksgiving. 402 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,360 Why not be thankful? The cure for this is just to be 403 00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:10,160 thankful with what you have and not to be consistently 404 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,520 discontent with what you don't in our own culture. 405 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:17,280 Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in 1831. 406 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:19,600 And he looked around and he said this American experiment is 407 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:21,000 amazing. It's beautiful. 408 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:24,720 But he says I have one thing against American culture. 409 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:29,360 He said money seems to be, quite simply, the only achievement 410 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:33,200 that Americans respect. So you've got money and you've 411 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,400 got security and you've got comfort, and all of these things 412 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:40,360 are wonderful desires and they're all good. 413 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,800 But here our love is disordered because covetousness puts love 414 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,880 of possessions over love of God and over love of neighbor and 415 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,600 over the good of our neighbor. And so not being content with 416 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,680 sufficiency, greed always demands more. 417 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:58,440 Greed is love in the wrong measure. 418 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,400 And so for this reason, if you look down to verse 5, he links 419 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,400 greed with idolatry. This is for you may be sure of 420 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,000 this, that everyone who's sexually immoral or impure or 421 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,680 who is covetous, that is an idolater. 422 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,200 You go to Colossians 35 and it links the same thing with the 423 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,080 same words to idolatry. Put to death what is earthly in 424 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,680 you, sexual immorality, impurity, evil desire and 425 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,040 covetousness, which is idolatry. And it's idolatry when you think 426 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:27,800 about it through the lens of love, because you're loving 427 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:31,960 something else more than you're loving God in that moment, which 428 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,520 is why Solomon prays in Proverbs 30. 429 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:38,080 Give me neither poverty nor riches, only my daily bread. 430 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:39,760 He goes, I don't want to be in the top 1%. 431 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,480 I don't want to be in the bottom 10%. 432 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:43,520 Lord, just give me what's needed for today. 433 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,840 Spare my heart from greed. And this is my own pastoral 434 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,960 observation over the years. There's three ways that you can 435 00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:57,320 get rid of greed in your heart. It's perspective, contentment 436 00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,520 and giving away and I love Andrew Reed. 437 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,800 He says in the greatest of these is charity. 438 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,840 If you want to keep your heart against greed, if you want to to 439 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:08,000 save your soul in this way, take the perspective of scripture 440 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,280 that it has on money, that it's dangerous, that it's a wonderful 441 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:14,080 blessing for other people's, but it's a it's a danger to your 442 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,120 soul and be content with what you have. 443 00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:19,120 This is what John the Baptist preaches as he's there paving 444 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:21,480 the way for Jesus Christ. He says be content with your 445 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,600 wages, be content with what you have and and give it away. 446 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,240 If you want to be free from the love of money, then give it 447 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,200 away. The greatest of these is 448 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,880 charity. And Paul gives one final 449 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,400 disordered love when he brings up something that's so seemingly 450 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,520 trivial. He talks about how we joke with 451 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:44,200 one another. And the third, the third 452 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,080 criteria here is how we play quiplash with one another. 453 00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:50,680 It's crude joking. Read verse four with me. 454 00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,440 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking 455 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,760 which are out of place, but instead let there be 456 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:00,840 Thanksgiving. Why is this wrong? 457 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:05,080 Because crude joking is delighting in shock value and 458 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:10,200 amusement and laughter, a quick laugh over edification and 459 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,440 Thanksgiving. And so Paul doesn't say stop 460 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:17,960 telling jokes, they're funny. It doesn't say replace crew 461 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,680 joking with silence. He says replace crude jokes with 462 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,160 Thanksgiving. He says rather than make crude 463 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,040 jokes about these things, express thanks for these things. 464 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:28,840 He doesn't say that the crude jokes aren't funny. 465 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:31,440 If they weren't funny, then he wouldn't have to tell you not 466 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,880 to. Not to say them, but to put it 467 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:35,440 in John Stott's words, I love this. 468 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,240 He says, don't joke about sex, give thanks for it. 469 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:42,480 And he goes on, and he commands them just to work through some 470 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,840 of this language with you. He says no foolish talk, which 471 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,440 is worthless talk, speculative talk, empty and speculative 472 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:50,920 words. And he moves on. 473 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,720 And he says no crude joking, which is a word that's only used 474 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,520 here in the New Testament. And so there's nothing, there's 475 00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:58,480 nothing for us to compare it to. But if you go to the ancient 476 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:02,560 world and you see how Aristotle uses it, he says it's quote, the 477 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,200 fondness of laughter characterized by youth. 478 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,440 End Quote. And I've told you this story 479 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,600 before and I think it's so hilarious that my dad, as a as a 480 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,520 school teacher for years and years retiring, he says that if 481 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,800 he could spend any verse, use any verse to describe his time 482 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,960 teaching junior English, it's Ecclesiastes. 483 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,800 Where he says the laughter of fools is like the cackling of 484 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:28,160 thorns under a pot. Because he says this is his kids 485 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,360 and there's nothing as serious and nothing as weighty. 486 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:34,000 And they just laugh and it's the laughter of fools. 487 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,840 And he says it's obnoxious. It's like listening to thorns 488 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:41,120 burn under a pot. First Timothy, 4/12 He says if 489 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:42,960 you're a youth in the room, if you're a young man in the room 490 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,440 and you want people to respect you, you want people to take you 491 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,280 seriously, you want to be respected and you want respect 492 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:51,240 where respect is due, he says. Then you set the believers an 493 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,920 example in speech. It's the first on the list. 494 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,520 There's a way the world talks, and then there's the way you're 495 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:00,640 going to talk. If you want to be respected and 496 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,280 you want to be taken seriously, don't talk like the world talks. 497 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:08,080 Don't joke like the world jokes. Aristotle sets limits on this 498 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,000 same word, and he gives us the idea of its ancient usage. 499 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,560 He says it incorporates constant joking when seriousness is 500 00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:18,440 called for humor that trivializes important things, 501 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,080 acting like a fool to get laughs. 502 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:25,280 You're rude, coarse and lack refinement or respect. 503 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,960 And you see that this is in the context of of sexual immorality 504 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,280 and impurity. And so he's he's probably 505 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,720 alluding to dirty or suggestive jokes. 506 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:37,840 He's saying this is not how you learned Christ and you put it 507 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:39,280 away. This is not imitating Jesus. 508 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,760 This is not walking in love. The Paul's not saying don't be 509 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,000 funny. He's saying control your humour 510 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:51,280 and Orient it according to your love of God, and it's 511 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,800 interesting that Thanksgiving and gratitude are given for you 512 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,360 to put in place of crude joking and idle speech. 513 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:01,200 Sinclair Ferguson says that it's because Thanksgiving is one of 514 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,520 God's remedies for this thing, for these things. 515 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,240 He says rather than coveting what you don't have, you focus 516 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:09,600 on what you do have and express gratitude for it. 517 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,360 It allows you to see things from God's perspective and from the 518 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,600 light of his Word. He says you should ask, how can 519 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,080 I be thankful for these things? And the moment that you are, you 520 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,760 take a step toward a pure life, a pure life. 521 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:27,680 And Paul answers a sobering question, what if you don't? 522 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,040 What if you don't imitate Christ and these things? 523 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:36,040 What if you don't order your loves and you choose to walk in 524 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,840 the world's definitions of love rather than in God's definition 525 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:44,360 of love? Paul's just unpacked three ways 526 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:46,880 that you can break free from these desires. 527 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,360 But he doesn't just stop with a description of it. 528 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:53,280 He moves on to consequences. What are the consequences if you 529 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,840 remain with these disordered loves? 530 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,800 He says it doesn't just lead to a lack of peace and blessing in 531 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,760 this life, it leads to an eternal lack of peace and 532 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:05,360 blessing in the life to come. Read verse 6 with me. 533 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,120 Let no one deceive you with empty words. 534 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:13,000 For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons 535 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,680 of disobedience. So you're saying God's wrath is, 536 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:22,680 is a real thing and, and hell is a real place and disordered 537 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,480 loves are real. We have real disordered loves 538 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,040 that we struggle with and they exist. 539 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,120 Hell exist and wrath exists because of these things, sexual 540 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,960 immorality and greed and corrupting talk. 541 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,560 And the world's going to bring 1000 arguments and they're going 542 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:39,200 to get in your ear and they're going to say, this is all the 543 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,400 reasons why the loves of the world are OK. 544 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:46,120 And I want you to remember what Spurgeon says. 545 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:47,880 People are going to believe anything if it's put plausibly 546 00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,520 before them. We can't listen to the arguments 547 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:50,800 of the world. You have to be wooded and 548 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:52,440 grounded in the word. They're going to bring arguments 549 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:54,280 like this. Some are going to argue that the 550 00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,400 scriptures are patriarchal. And so we need to go to war with 551 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,560 them because they're oppressive and restraining. 552 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,240 Other people aren't going to go to war with the word, but 553 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:04,800 they're going to they're going to deny it and say, you know, 554 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:08,680 the the word is archaic and it's it's old and it's irrelevant to 555 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:10,240 the modern age. And they're going to go a couple 556 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,720 lines of thinking in this. They're going to some are going 557 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:15,480 to say it's a cultural artifact of the sexual standards that 558 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,240 existed 2000 years ago, but those are not relevant for 559 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,200 today. And other people are going to 560 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,840 say we need to reinterpret the word through our enlightened 561 00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:26,560 biological understanding. And neither of those are true. 562 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:29,560 And for others, they're going to say that we're fine to believe 563 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,800 whatever we think this may be true as long as we keep our 564 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:37,440 thoughts on money and sex in our own private lives and in our 565 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,880 churches, and we don't allow them out into the public sphere 566 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:41,960 and into the marketplace. And they don't affect the 567 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,040 culture. Paul says in verse 6, let no one 568 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,640 deceive you with empty words. And this is the great warning. 569 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,560 It's emphasized, and Paul underlines it. 570 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,240 If he had a highlighter of it for your Bible, it would be 571 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:58,080 highlighted. He says, you may be sure of 572 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:02,240 this, verse 5, no one who is immoral, no one who is impure, 573 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:06,120 no one who is covetous will inherit the Kingdom of God. 574 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:09,000 So there are a lot of things in Scripture that are unclear. 575 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,800 There are some things that are that are so clear a child can 576 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:13,520 understand. For God so loved the world, He 577 00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,680 gave his only begotten son. There's no room for ambiguity in 578 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,120 that. There are things that are 579 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:19,400 ambiguous. There are things that are 580 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:21,040 unclear. Scripture's trying to highlight 581 00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:23,440 it and say here, this is not one of those things. 582 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:25,640 Pay attention. This is true. 583 00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,080 You can know that it's true. I'm emphasizing it before you 584 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:34,600 now, that no idolatus person will inherit the Kingdom of God. 585 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,000 If your love, if you love sexually deviant behaviour, if 586 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,200 you love more money more than you love God, He says your 587 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,520 disordered loves will damn you, and your disordered loves will 588 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:49,360 shepherd your soul to hell. But what do the scriptures say? 589 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,800 And in response to this, Titus 33. 590 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,480 But we ourselves were once foolish and disobedient. 591 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:58,240 We were once misled and became slaves to many lusts and 592 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,080 pleasures. Our lives were full of envy and 593 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:05,480 evil, and we hated each other. But when the goodness and living 594 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,040 kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not 595 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,520 because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to 596 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:15,120 His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, by the renewal of 597 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,240 the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus 598 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:22,120 Christ our Savior. So when your, when your loves 599 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,560 are disordered, when you come to Jesus Christ, you come to him, 600 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:27,840 not on the basis of virtue. He builds virtues in you. 601 00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:31,880 You come to Him not on the basis of virtue, but on the basis of 602 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,960 his mercy, and he will give mercy to you, and he will 603 00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,880 reorder your loves. And that's why he says here, 604 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,560 imitate Jesus Christ and walk in love. 605 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,560 If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you don't 606 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,360 know the joy and blessing that comes from ordering your life 607 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,080 after him, a cross shaped love. Come and talk to me. 608 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:53,640 Come and talk to Chris. Come and talk to one of the 609 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:55,480 pastors. We'll be in this green room 610 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:57,160 right after the service. I would love to talk to you 611 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,320 about a relationship of love with God the Father and his son. 612 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:04,720 But as you look and remember again, the first verse, 613 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,560 Ephesians 51. There's a famous book in church 614 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:11,600 history that was that was titled after Ephesians 51. 615 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:14,640 It was by Thomas Okempis. It's called The Imitation of 616 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:16,400 Christ, and the book opens this way. 617 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,960 I want to read to you the whole introduction. 618 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,320 Akempus says what that means from campus. 619 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,840 That's not his actual last name, but Thomas Akempus says he who 620 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,720 follows me walks not in darkness, says the Lord. 621 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,200 By these words of Christ we were advised to imitate His life and 622 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,280 habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all 623 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:41,160 blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, 624 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,560 be to study the life of Jesus Christ. 625 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,400 The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of 626 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,840 the Saints. And he who has spirit, His 627 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,080 Spirit will find in it a hidden manner. 628 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:53,920 Now there are many who hear the gospel often, but care little 629 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,000 for it, because they have not the Spirit of Christ. 630 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:59,200 Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must 631 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,480 try to pattern his whole life onto that Christ. 632 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:05,840 What good is it to speak learnedly about the Trinity, if 633 00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:08,120 lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? 634 00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,639 Indeed, it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a 635 00:34:11,639 --> 00:34:14,159 virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. 636 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:16,920 I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. 637 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:20,040 For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart, 638 00:34:20,199 --> 00:34:22,520 in the principles of all the philosophers, if we live without 639 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,560 grace in the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is 640 00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,560 vanity except to love God and to serve Him alone. 641 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,120 This is the greatest wisdom, to seek the Kingdom ahead of heaven 642 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,000 through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek 643 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,719 and trust in riches that perish. It's vanity to court honour, and 644 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,840 to be puffed up with pride. It's vanity to follow the lust 645 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:44,920 of the body, and to desire things for which severe 646 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:48,360 punishment later must come. It's vanity to wish for long 647 00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,280 life, and to care little about a life well spent. 648 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,560 It's vanity to be concerned with the present only, and not to 649 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:57,040 make provision for the things to come. 650 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,840 It's vanity to love what passes quickly, and not to look ahead 651 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:04,160 where eternal joy abides. Often recall the proverb, the 652 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,840 eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with 653 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:08,720 hearing. Try, moreover, to turn your 654 00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:11,360 heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to 655 00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,200 things invisible. For they who follow their evil 656 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:18,800 passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God. 657 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,280 My final reminder to you is remember, you are not first and 658 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,680 foremost a rational creature. You are first and foremost a 659 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:29,640 loving creature. And it's love that moves your, 660 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:32,400 your heart and your soul and your desires and your wills. 661 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,640 And so consider and think about your own idols, your own 662 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,960 passions, your vices, and hear Jesus speak these words to you. 663 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:45,160 Do you love me more than these? Church? 664 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:52,440 Pray with me, God, we, we want to image you and all of your 665 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,760 communicable attributes. We want it to follow after the 666 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:56,840 pattern that you've set. We want to love the poor and 667 00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,720 God, we know that we cannot do that perfectly and we need you 668 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:03,320 to to buy your spirit order our loves calibrate our life and our 669 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:07,080 love so that we can experience blessing and joy and and peace. 670 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:09,720 And Lord, we want to love you with all our heart and with all 671 00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:11,440 our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. 672 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,560 But but help us when we fall short and every time we open 673 00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,760 these scriptures and every time we sing songs together, Lord, 674 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:19,400 help us to fall in love just a little bit more with you. 675 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,640 Fall in love just a little bit more with your Son Jesus Christ 676 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,520 whom you sent, and even more in love with this church body. 677 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:31,360 God, take away from us these idols that are our our hearts 678 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:33,720 are as the church says the the reformers said they're, they're 679 00:36:33,720 --> 00:36:36,040 idol factories. There's so much impurity and 680 00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:39,880 uncleanness in US and we ask, please, Lord, purge it from us 681 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:45,360 as we imitate you as we walk in love, Lord, make us pure people 682 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:47,680 so that we don't even need the 10 commandments to remind us 683 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,200 constantly, Lord, but your spirit convicts us and we walk 684 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,040 in holiness and in love because we love you, because you're 685 00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:56,000 forming Christ in US. Purge these things from us, 686 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,720 Lord, we love you. We ask this in Christ's name. 687 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:01,920 Amen. Thanks for listening. 688 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:04,640 To learn more about Heritage Church or if you'd like to 689 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,080 respond to this sermon, visit our website at 690 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,760 www.heritageshawnee.org.