Let No One Deceive You

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for i've join me as i read from sanh 130 follow along as i as i read some 130 a song of a sense out of the depths I cry to you O Lord O Lord hear my voice let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy if you O Lord should mark iniquities O Lord who could stand but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared I wait for the Lord my soul waits and in his word I hope my soul waits for the Lord more than Watchmen for the morning more than Watchmen for the morning o Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is steadfast love and with him is plentiful Redemption and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities amen Lord we need you as we think to turn now to the Bible we need the work of the Spirit of God to quicken our understanding to come so that beyond the voice of a mere man we might hear the very word of Christ so that in responding to him our lives might be brought into the reality of what it means to know and love and follow you accomplish your purposes we pray now for Jesus sake amen well I invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 5 as we continue our studies in Ephesians and we'll read the first six verses and our focus this morning will be primarily on verse five and in and into verse six Ephesians 5 and verse 1 therefore 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 a sacrifice to God but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among sins 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 amen well we've been following the Apostles arguments some of us for a while now from the opening part of the letter back in Chapter 1 some picked up and joined us around chapter 4 when we said that here in chapter 4 Paul moves from the more doctrinal section of the book in the first three chapters to the moral and ethical impact of it all although having said that we've noted almost immediately and consistently that all of his moral imperatives are grounded in what we've become accustomed to referring to as the doctrinal indicative in other words he is not calling for his readers to become something they are not by means of their own attempts at religious practice but he is calling his readers to become what they are in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and as we came to chapter 5 we saw immediately that it is amazing thought the only place in the New Testament that we find this exhortation that we would be imitators of God and that we would imitate God as his beloved children and how would that become apparent while we would walk in love what would it be like to walk in love well it would mean first of all self-sacrifice you remember that he said we he defined the love in which we're supposed to be walking in terms of the self sacrificial love of Jesus and that was in verses 1 and 2 and then in verses 3 and 4 he went on to say that if you're going to be walking in love it is imperative that your lives are not marked by self-indulgence so the self-sacrifice that is to be present and the self self-indulgence that is to be banished and we said two weeks ago that it was important for us to understand and since it was important two weeks ago it's important this week as well because I'm I'm confident in each of us in our ability to forget but we said that it is important to realize that in these verses particularly when you come to verses 3 and 4 he is not admonishing the culture but he is addressing the church hands up those of you who remember that point 3 of you terrific all right he is not a monitoring the church he and monitoring the culture he's addressing the church secondly he is absolutely clear that God's standards are high and they are absolute he doesn't equivocate in any way at all these things that he describes in verses 3 and 4 are completely out of place he says it is improper for those who are the sons and daughters of God to cultivate this kind of a thaw some UNG's themselves to allow themselves to think down these tracks to include this kind of nonsense and immorality in in our conversation and then thirdly we said that it is only through the gospel through story of all that God has done for us in Jesus that any of us are ever enabled to live as God requires we also said on that morning that if we start at the wrong end with these things we will immediately go wrong if we are tempted to think that the message of Christianity is ultimately about us or ultimately about our happiness then of course we won't know how to deal with life as difficulty and disappointment comes along and therefore is wonderfully reassuring and helpfully challenging to realize what we said then and reinforced now that God's interest in us is not our happiness which may be a byproduct but it is in our holiness in our holiness and this is not an emphasis unique to Ephesians for example when he writes to Titus in chapter 2 encouraging Titus in Crete to be a minister of the gospel he reminds Titus to remind his people quotes that he that is Jesus gave himself for us that he might notice the verb purify for himself a people for his own possession so he is in the business of purifying a people for his own possession now that is an ongoing process as we're going to see this morning and it brings us through all kinds of changes and experiences in life some of which are not immediately accessible to us or amenable to us and we have to realize what God is doing that's why we need our Bibles that's why for example when you think along these lines it's important to realize what the writer to the Hebrews is doing when he encourages the people in chapter 12 and he encourages them to realize that every good earthly father disciplines his children it's it's a nonsense to think that ill-disciplined are undisciplined children are a testimony to anybody at all and so the writer argues from the lesser to the greater and he quotes the Old Testament and he says have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you sons quotes my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives he then goes down to verse nine he says we verily fathers who disciplined us for a while and we respected them how much more then shall we be subject to the father of spirits and live they disciplined us for a short time it seemed best but he disciplines us that is the father disciplines us for our good karma that we may share his holiness that we may share his holiness so the disciplinary action of God in our lives that the fashioning of us we could say quite honestly that just in the same way that there are times when we have had occasion to go up to our bedrooms greatly discouraged and unhappy because of the intervention of our earthly fathers thinking that our earthly fathers know nothing at all of who we are or what we need or what we're like or what is best for us only to discover further down the line that they knew all that is best for us and they were protecting us as well as providing for us in other words it was through unhappiness that we were to discover real happiness and oftentimes in our Christian lives there will be that which comes in that we can make no obvious explanation off and it is helpful at least to me and I hope to you to to realize what God is doing he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness that's because his plan is to make us increasingly like Jesus now Paul then continues to speak with great clarity and he does so because this matter is absolutely crucial when he goes from verse 4 into verse 5 you will realize that there's a conjunction there for the little word for we could translate it because no crude joke in Thanksgiving because you can be sure of this sure of what sure the fact that the actions to which the kind of conversation that he is just negated in verses 3 and 4 leads is the kind of activity that disqualifies a man or a woman from any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God as he puts it uniquely here that kind of activity is a disqualifying factor now let's just leave that sit for a moment and notice how he begins you may be sure of this or if you're like colloquially you can take this one to the bank you can stake your life on this is what you say you may be absolutely sure of this that everyone who then is acting in this way is disqualified now you will notice I hope if your Bible is open that in verse 3 the three elements that he mentions he comes back to in verse 5 sexual immorality impurity covetousness was not even supposed to be talked about he says so if it's not even supposed to be talked about then it's no surprise that in verse 5 he says everyone who is actually not just talking about it but living in this has no inheritance in the kingdom of God let me give it to you in a sentence stolen from my good friend Sinclair this is what this how he puts it now I think this summarizes it if we get this we get it we cannot be ears of a heavenly kingdom while living as citizens of a sinful one we cannot be heirs of a heavenly kingdom while living as citizens of a sinful one now one of the things that inevitably must come to mind is well is this a peculiar emphasis or is this something that we find routinely in the Bible well I think you know your Bible is well enough to know the answer to that is it's everywhere so for example when Paul writes to the church at Corinth again right into the church at Corinth not right into the culture of Corinth no to the church he says to them don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God system don't you know well of course the answer is yes we do know and then his point is so why are you living the way you're living he says some there's things going on in your place that don't even have it among the pagans and he's not talking about the bathhouses of Corinth he's talking about the communion services in Corinth same emphasis in in in first John when first John and first John and you remember it says that he who has this hope within impurifier in as as he is pure in other words he says if you if you say that you have the hope of the gospel in you that you are looking forward to entering into the inheritance of a heavenly kingdom let me tell you how you'll know the purity of your life that's the indication that you have the hope you know when when you're getting ready for your girlfriend coming all of a sudden you take a big big interest and you know how you're looking if she's not coming and she was here for four or five days you don't have to Prince a ripe renew yourself and do all those things but when you know that she's about to appear you better be on your best behavior you better be looking as good as you can there's no there's no legalism in that is there you know nobody gives you a big rulebook no you just do it why because you want that to be the case so he says the one who looks forward to the embrace of God purifies himself even as God Himself is pure therefore impurity in my life either says I don't know God or actually I'm not really interested in going to meet God now I wasn't going to mention that you got that for extra I was going to call this first in first John chapter 2 in verse 4 say emphases 1 John 2 for whoever says I know him but does not keep his Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him whoever says I know him and doesn't keep his Commandments is a bare-faced liar that's where John says that's striking isn't it you say well I don't like these apostles I I much prefer I much prefer Jesus I think we should spend far more time with Jesus well I couldn't agree more but you think for a moment the apostles were saying anything other than Jesus had taught them you don't know your Bible if you say that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount he's just given a little piece on you better big you better make sure that your tree is bearing fruit because it is the fruitfulness of the tree that that allows people to understand what kind of tree it is good for a good tree bad fruit bad tree then he follows it up with a punchline here it goes not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven one day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name and then will I declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness or in Ephesians 5 you sons and daughters of disobedience see that many will say but the indication is in what we do so what does this mean are we are we to deduce that Ephesians 5:5 and these other passages to which I have now referred are we are we to assume that the Bible is teaching that if ever a person falls into one of these sins that they are then eternally excluded from the kingdom of heaven well I think you know your Bible well enough to know the answer to that question as well don't you the answer to that is no that's why we read from Psalm 130 not arbitrarily but I wanted to read verse 4 but with you there is forgiveness this is the message of the gospel that if we confess our sins he's faithful and just and he forgives us our sins and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness that's the amazing story and that is at the heart of it all hence the incongruity that Paul now addresses and hence the danger that attaches to it what he's referencing here are the lifes of men and women that are if you like settled in this way it's the life of an idolater it's the life of the person who in these terms has become sexually greedy he does not respond or she does not respond with Thanksgiving to the precious gifts of God in the realm of human sexuality but instead has made a lifestyle I would have engaging in all kinds of things that take that individual and those in contact with him or her beyond the bounds of that which God has established for the well-being of his people with that said it is not uncommon to hear people say well as far as I understand it all once you are declared righteous in Jesus because of what Jesus has done then in actual fact your life dile is pretty much your own deal because after all if I understand quotes justification then you are forgiven past present and future and so the person says as in Romans six why don't I just go out and sin so that grace may abound and prove that I really understand the doctrine of justification the answer is you clearly don't understand the doctrine of justification because to put it in a nutshell God does not justify those whom he does not sanctify those who were predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified Romans 830 and those whom he justified he also glorified so you can't take one piece of the puzzle and separate it from the unfolding drama of God in salvation so the justified person is the being sanctified person and the person who is not being sanctified or is not giving any evidence of it either has never been justified or doesn't understand what it means to live within the framework of God's great salvific purpose there's there's regeneration the imparting of the Spirit of God in our lives without which we cannot even understand one jot or tittle of the Bible without the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit the Bible it could have been written in Chinese for most of us because we've got no grasp of it at all what is it that one day suddenly allows us to see the truth of the Bible suddenly to read it and care suddenly to open it up and find that it speaks to me this is the power of God's Spirit he is the one who regenerates he is the one who illumines he is the one who justifies he is the one who sanctifies he is the one who will bring it to completion but when a person comes alongside it says oh I don't think so I don't think it matters Christ bore the penalty of my sin he met the demands of the law and therefore I'm free from all obligation to the law I hear it all the time I don't have to deal anything with the law that's the Old Testament they tell the kingdom of God was different the kingdom of Christ is new notice to pray the translation no one has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God I think what Paul is saying is this don't play that stunt don't play the idea that the Old Testament was really concerned about this and the New Testament isn't concerned about it at all and if you have any doubt about that then just keep reading your Bible Romans chapter 8 and as Paul makes makes it clear that the law could never put a person right with God because nobody could ever keep the jolly thing we've all broken the law all of us have sinned and fallen short of the broken and fallen short of the glory of God so if our view of Christianity is what you're supposed to do is you get involved with a group of people and then you just try your best effort for the rest of your life and hopefully you'll be able to overcome some of the bad stuff you've been doing if you have a bad week then try and have a good week off set the bad week and so on two steps up the ladder three steps down get a new ladder keep going back and forth nothing could be further from the truth here we have at verse three of Romans eight God God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do couldn't do how has he done it by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh it's not a it's not a period there it's not a full stop as a comma he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit for those who live according to the spirit set their mind on the things of the Spirit for the things of the flesh is death and so on he goes with his argument now remember where he has started he started gloriously there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus those who have been justified by faith Romans chapter five verse one and he has gone through six and the challenge there and he's rebutted that why don't we just do what we want he said for bid you've never even understand student justification into chapter 7 the good that I want to do I don't do the bad I don't want to do I end up doing it I'm involved in a continual and irreconcilable war well then who am i what am I the the struggle of seven is more than match by the reality of eight III do wrestle against flesh against all these things because Christ lives in me but sin lives in me therefore I know the reality of that sometimes I wonder if I make any progress at all in my Christian life and that's why if you're like chapter seven is like the north side of a house or it's like January in Cleveland right it's cold and it's it's it's threatening but Romans eight is the south side of the house it's like yesterday afternoon is 88 degrees and gorgeous who would live anywhere else but we live in both sides of the house the reality in Romans seven is a reality the reality in Romans eight is a reality you don't get out of Romans seven to get into Romans eight you live your entire Christian life in seven and an eight and it is the reality of seven that is mad by the glory of chapter 8 but in case they were going to go wrong he says to them by the way what the law could not do God has done in the person of his son in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us not so that we can be lawless now I can see you looking at me and you're wondering a little bit about this in actual fact what this has to do with is an understanding of the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification and will really make a mess of these two verses if we don't get a hold of this so let me just let me quote the Catechism because that saves time and it's really good question 33 of the Shorter Catechism asked the question what is justification here's the answer justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone all right so in the same way that a judge is able to declare the person in the dock free from condemnation the judge does not declare the person sinless and does not make the person free from condemnation in the same way justification is forensic it is legal every so often I hear people praying and they say thank you thank you that you have made us righteous through our justification no he hasn't he doesn't make us righteous through our justification he declares us righteous he doesn't make us righteous well how in the world is he gonna make us righteous that is the process of sanctification justification is instantaneous justification precedes sanctification but justification as I said before does not exist on its own placed in a right relationship with God by what Christ has done for us so that not only are our sins forgiven but we are accepted in his sight question 35 what is sanctification answer sanctification is the work of God's free grace same whereby we are so renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness so the one is if you like legal and forensic the other is moral and ongoing the one is a crisis if we can use that word and that eventually will be met by another crisis if you think it's not a great word but I've used it now so I'll stick with it but if you think of justification as like a crisis instantaneous event if you think of glorification as a crisis instantaneous event when I see him I will be made like him that will not be a process that will be in a moment in the twinkling of an eye changed into his image but in the meanwhile tomorrow morning when I have to go back to the things I do tomorrow morning and you do too what is it that God is doing he is working in the realm of sanctification to conform us to the image of his son therefore he says you better get this clear in your mind that if your life is marked by sexual immorality by adultery by the things that our world our culture this morning says are just absolutely fine you have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and god it's dramatic isn't it and the reason is dramatic is because it is absolutely crucial god I say to you again does not justify those he does not sanctify so what you have in this verse is first of all a warning and then actually you have a test you have a warning about how important it is to be in a right standing before God and how that is revealed in a progressively sanctified life you have a test not the only test but you have a test against which you can gauge yourself and actually the verse provides a means to the very end you see how does God sanctify me by not only his promises but by his warnings that's why that's why if you read for example in Hebrews in Hebrews chapter six in one of the quotes apostasy passages if you read the apostasy passage and you just scan right through and you go well I'm sure that's very important for somebody and not me you ought to be more worried than you realize we are to read the apostasy passage to say dear Lord Jesus helped us not to be me you get it because because justification is not a synonym for presumption it's not a synonym for presumption it does not allow us then to presume on things it actually fashions us according to these things and so unless my life testifies to being in the process and of being perfected by the process I'm forced to conclude that I'm gonna have to start at the very beginning again I'm not gonna be able to pass goal and I'm not gonna be able to collect 200 pounds dollars no I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to start at the beginning where's the beginning at the cross of Jesus Christ acknowledging that what I've been doing is calling you Lord Lord but you're not my lord I've been actually trying my best to put myself in a good standing with you and I'm completely messed up because it doesn't work that she see what it does it's not supposed to make us go oh well I'm sure that's not me do you remember when Jesus has his disciples in the room and he says to you he says to them he says one of you is a betrayer remember other response was to a man he said Lord it's not me is it didn't all go oh yeah that's that's Oh Judas here yeah we know him no in fact Judas was adept at saying Lord Lord he had a button-down well we better just say a word about verse 6 [Music] it's no surprise then that he says let no one deceive you with empty words let no one deceive you with empty words because he realizes that there's gonna be a whole ton of people that come around and say oh you don't have to believe that stuff the Gnostic heresy in that period of time was very very attractive because the Gnostics taught that anything that you do with the physicality of your body cannot it cannot affect your spiritual standing before God so a heck of a deal right so your secure quotes somewhere in the inner place and you can go out and do you want to sleep with anyone you want do it anything you want doesn't matter if you deal with this issue or that is it's not it's not an issue Paul says do not lead do not be deceived by vain and empty words you say well we don't have that today do we are you kidding me think of all the empty words that are part and parcel of our everyday life god they say people say if he exists it's far too kind to punish anyone we don't believe the wrath of God anymore there's clearly it's not it's not something it's it's an old-fashioned idea and and really we must distance ourselves from it people who say the same thing they'll say it's all about living in the moment sounds so good doesn't it it's on the golf course today when they play the PGA the final Eastlake you'll hear it again again again and there's absolutely Felicity to it isn't there you don't want to be thinking about if you're gonna win it you better just make sure you hit this fine line so stay in the moment that's true jesus said sufficient in the day is the evil thereof but Jesus was saying the now matters because of the then contemporary philosophy says that now matters because there is no then you see this is Dead Poets Society this is Robin Williams what a tragedy when I think of Robin Woods he probably believed that Lukey says in the quarter look at all the people who are at this school before you where are they now they're nowhere and you'll be nowhere therefore carpe diem seize the moment because this is all you have that is one of the great lies of the evil one this is not all you have there is a reality beyond this transient life it is called eternity and it is the destiny of every created being under God but it's vain jangling words they'll tell you no it's not there the autonomous self says it doesn't matter how I conduct my my being I am an entirely in charge of my own destiny where does this come from goodness gracious there people argue the toss about Darwin and his evolutionary hypothesis but it's all it's all there actually I'm not laying it at the root of old Darwin but you know do you really believe we are we are animals evolving upward we are all evolving upward we've had a good go at it since about the 1840s since he since he explained to us that there is no God who created us there is no God that stands outside of time he's created that the the philosophical constructs are the scientific methodology to allow us just to say forget all that nonsense but deep inside our hearts we know it isn't true because every sunset says it isn't true every birth of a little child says it isn't true the whole of creation cries out it isn't true but we suppress the truth of God to embrace a lie and those vain words come out as again and again again and so Paul says if you're gonna live a life that is marked by godliness you're going to be up against it left right and center and we are today everything the psychologists have psychologize away sin the education let's tell us that we're only just a few courses away from getting everything perfect and so we go down the line and where the world are we there more murders this weekend in Chicago than in some continents said that then in some countries of Western Europe in one city there is disciplined there is indiscipline in the home there is chaos in the school there is there is loss of structure in the courts there is fearfulness in the realm of Medicine you just go right down the line and do you hear the vain words coming back don't listen to that stuff we know that isn't true we're all evolving upwards it's all going to be fine in the end and don't let anyone tell you about the wrath of God no God would not be that way I visited a lady Friday afternoon in the oncology ward one of the oncology wards at the Cleveland Clinic jeez 70 and I'll tell you right now that whoever her oncologist is hates that cancer in her with a passion it's justifiably committed to eradicating every last element out of her body if she or he can and nobody would stand back and say well that's not the right thing to do in fact it makes perfect sense you see the wrath of God is not the fiery outburst of a dad who's lost his temper and kicked a cat and driven his car into the wall no it's not like that at all it is the settled response of the entire holiness and character of God to everything that he knows is marring and spoiling and and disappointing and and and just destroying life don't be led away by these vain words why all the bitterness the unhappiness the brokenness the wretchedness well it's the wrath of God read Romans what God says you want to do it on your own this is how it goes read Romans 1 how does it go suppress the truth idolatry immorality homosexuality the destruction of a culture you want it on your own let me show you how it works no culture in history has survived the kind of stuff that our culture is going through right now and the one thing that you mustn't do is stand up and say do you know what God actually says about this and do you know why because and you know that he sent his son to die on the cross so that all this brokenness and wretchedness and disintegrated life could be found in all of its fullness that we can understand who we are what we are why we are in him that's the message and Paul you can just almost hear his heart can't you what are you going to do about this in light of the fact that it is appointed unto man wants to die and after this comes the judgment if you go to a funeral service as much and some of you do it's almost an occupational hazard the older we get it's quite remarkable to me because I do go to services every so often what that I don't ever I don't have a part in and and and they often do Sam 90 but he always excerpt it not always but often so it goes like this Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations and before the mountains were brought forth or ever you form the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God so teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom hey wait a minute he just missed a big chunk you return man to dust and say return no children of man you sweep them away like a flood we are brought to an end by your anger and by your wrath we are dismayed where is the answer to the wrath of God where has God's wrath been poured out it has been poured out on the cross of his dearly beloved son in order that we might be able to heed the word of he flee from the wrath to come you have the same thing when they do 2 Corinthians 5 2 Corinthians 5 we know this earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from God there's not wave with hands it's lovely the picture of the tent going away and so it goes on and then it finishes verse 9 but verse 10 is the kicker for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive what each one has done in their body whether good or bad well you say in our stir that would then were justified by our good deeds no how could I that wouldn't be true the ground of our salvation is in the work of Jesus Christ for us not as a result of something done in us definitely not done by us but the evidence of the fact that we have been brought into the realm of the justified is in the ongoing of his work in us which is teaching us to say no to ungodliness to stand away from these things to nip it in the bud because of who we are I could still hear my father's voice now that's not the boy that's not my boy you you're not gonna do that are you we have built of my identity well that's right the father looks down says you're my girl you don't do that are you and if you've done that you better come down bow your knee let's get it back on let's go onward and upward father thank you we commend one another into your loving care may the love of the Lord Jesus draws to him may the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our hearts as we seek to serve and follow him may the peace of the Lord Jesus keep us when all the vain and prevailing voices sound in our ears so that we might on that day stand before you clothed in Christ's righteousness and unashamed to this end we pray in Jesus name Amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 8,509

Rating: 4.9652176 out of 5

Keywords: Truth For Life, Christian Living, Justification, Law, Morality, Obedience, Obeying God, Salvation, Sanctification, Sexuality, Alistair Begg, Ephesians

Id: wBaNVnK-T9k

Length: 44min 13sec (2653 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 14 2020