Wonderful privileges we've been given together every time we get to do it. So, we come to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 5 to 6. And here's how they read from the apostle. He says, "...For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an 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 sons of disobedience." Two ships passing in the night. It's an idiom for when two people are in close connection for a moment. and yet they are going to be separated eventually, drastically. It's an idiom that is sometimes used when people look alike, they appear that they are together, that they're clumped together. Almost like two planes crossing each other in the sky, they appear close. But in reality, they're going two different directions, and they have nothing in common other than the fact that they are passing each other. People quote it sometimes when they disagree, and they just say, well, we'll just be two ships passing in the night then. I think I thought of that because it seemed to me as I studied these two verses that the main point of Paul in his mind as he penned them is that the human race, mixed as it is at the moment, is made up of two kinds of people that really are like two ships passing each other. in the night, because although we sit together at restaurants, although we get gas together at the same convenience store, although we pass each other in Walmart or sit in the same stands at the ballgame, there is a real sense in which we are going two totally different directions. I think this is the main meaning of Jesus' parables of the sheep and the goat, the good and the bad fish, the weed and the tares. The idea is the world consists of one human race and yet there's two kinds of people. Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about the creation awaits eagerly the revealing of the sons of God. So there's a sense in which when you become a Christian, nothing appears different on the outside. You look just like the lost man. You don't have like in the medieval artwork, you don't have like a halo above your head. You look just like the lost man. At the game, at the restaurant, And yet you're not like him, yet you're different. John says it's not yet been revealed as how he shall appear. So the sons of the kingdom are mixed with the sons of this age for right now, but there is coming a separation. C.S. Lewis said there's only two kinds of people in the end in his book, The Great Divorce, and he said there are those who say to God, Thou will be done, and there are those whom God says to them, Thou will be done. Ultimately, no one who doesn't want to go to hell goes there. Or to say it more positively, anyone who actually wants joy, anyone who actually wants to know God, does know Him. He who seeks, finds. To him who knocks, it will be opened. Whosoever will, he can take the water of life freely. And so this is Paul's point. I think he has in mind that the human race is mixed. There are two different destinies. There are two kinds of people. And therefore, although we're together at the moment, we really are two ships passing in the night. Now, the reason he's making this point, though, has to do with what he just said. The reason he wants to make this point in verses 5 and 6 is to support what he had said in verses 3 to 4, which is to support the idea that it's not fitting for the saints to live a life of greediness like lost people, but rather a life of thankfulness. In other words, it's fitting for the saints to act differently. from the lost people around them. You can see he's thinking this way. By the way, verse 5 begins with the conjunction for, which is obviously an explanatory conjunction, a premise identifying kind of signal that he is about to give us a premise for what he just said of an argument. Which means what he said in verses 3 and 4 is being supported by what he's about to say in verse 5. So what did he say in verses 3 and 4? This is the current exhortation he's on that began in verse 25 of chapter 4, where he started getting specific, viewing the Christian life of sanctification under this imagery of taking off and putting on. taking off behaviors that no longer fit who God recreated you to be through the Gospel on the inside, and putting on behaviors that do fit. And He always says in each one of these specifics, He exhorts us to take something particular off, put something particular on in its place, and He gives us a reason to have it not. as to why we should do that. Well, similarly here in verses 3 and 4, He's just recently told us to take off greediness and to put on thankfulness. And the reason He had given was because this is fitting. So it is fitting for a saint to be thankful. It is not fitting for a saint to be greedy. And then he says, 4, and goes into what he's going to go into in verse 5. So, essentially what that means is what you have here is an argument in which the conclusion comes first in verses 3 and 4, and now He's going to give you supports for it in verse 5. So, not every time we argue do we just set it up in standard form. This, this, therefore, this. Sometimes we give the conclusion first. We say, I think such and such, because, and we go into our reasons, and it appears that that is the way he's arguing here. He gives the conclusion in verses 3 and 4, and the premise for it in verses 5 and following. So essentially what he says is you should live differently than these people because you have another destiny from these people. Which means there's an implied, obvious, major premise if you want to set this out like a syllogism. Something like, if you have a different destiny, then you should live differently. You do have a different destiny, therefore you should live differently. It's that kind of argument that Paul has in mind. He wants to give us a support then to live differently. This is His reason for this particular exhortation. It kind of has a double. The reason is it's not fitting, but then He gives us a reason that it's not fitting. So, in order to establish His argument, He has to assert this second premise. that the saints and the lost people do have different destinies. Remember, just to say it again, his argument would be something like this. This is what he has in mind. Premise number one, if people have different destinies, then those people should live differently. Premise number two, the saints and the lost do have different destinies. Conclusion, therefore they should live differently. So what he's having to prove and assert and remind us of is that second premise that the saints and the lost do have different destinies. So, in verses 5 to 6, he reminds us of this in two ways. Number one, he tells us that we already know it. And number two, he tells us to keep on knowing it. So those are the two points of today's sermon. So number one, in verse 5, the Apostle Paul tells us, you already know this, that the saints and the lost have different destinies. Notice he begins with, you, you are the subject. For this you know, which is plural, and that means that all of us know something. And then he goes on to say, and you know it with certainty, literally it is, know, know. That's what he writes in the Greek. You know that you know. And we talk like that sometimes. It's kind of an idiom. I know that I know that I know. We just pile up knows. When we're trying to communicate that we know something with certainty rather than probability, it's not you say, well, it's going to rain today. That's a statement of probability. But you're going to die? That's a statement of certainty. So some of our statements are certain statements. Some of them are probability statements. And Paul is saying, you know this, not with probability. There's something you know, and you know it as certain as your hand in front of your face. And the direct object of this verb know, what you know is a pronoun this. You know this. Which is interesting, it's antecedent actually comes after it, rather than before it. In other words, the noun that it stands for, because the clause starting with that, that comes after it, is a noun clause. that fits where the this is. So, it functions as the statement of truth that we all know with certainty. So, what is the statement of truth? It is that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Paul is saying, I don't need to teach you this. You know deep in your conscience this. Now, the subject of this statement is compound, right? You have a pile of terms, and you notice they're the same terms he's already used. Immoral, impure, greedy, covetous in English there in verse 5 is the same Greek word for greedy that he already used. But this time an extra term is added, idolater. And that shows us we were on the right track to read immorality as a kind of impurity and impurity as a kind of greed, and therefore greed is really the fountain of all of this. And so he calls this greedy person he has in mind an idolater. Now, idolatry is an interesting term in our modern day, so it's worth looking at. So if you look at this word, idolater, it's made up of two parts. The ending part is latreo, which is a word for worship. We get our word liturgy from it. And the ido, front part of it, is from the Greek eidos, which means to see. or an image. So you have this idea of worshipping an image. It's just the etymological meaning, at least, of the term. But remember, Latreo is like your religious allegiance. You have an allegiance, let's say, that only should be given to God, not to anything or anyone else. which is, by the way, what we would say makes Jesus' gospel call so radical, that He must forsake your father and mother and everyone in order to be my disciple. That's a claim to deity, that He's to be given this kind of allegiance, which you would say goes only to God and not man, which is why Peter could say, whether it's right to serve you or God, you be the judge. It's this idea that you're requiring something of me that only God can require. A kind of allegiance that only belongs to Him. So it means to give your God-like allegiance to an image. But remember, it's not restricted to just stone or wooden images because we might excuse ourselves in the modern day real quick and say, oh, well, I don't deal with that because I don't have any wooden images or stone images that I'm bowing down to. I want you to remember that in Acts 17, the Apostle Paul is in Athens, and it says, you remember he preaches there, and he calls these people idolaters, what they worship in ignorance. So he says he saw the city full of idols, and he calls these people to repent. So he calls these people idolaters, But you may remember that it says in verse 18, some of the people he was speaking to were the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. The Epicureans were those, they were atomist philosophically, which means they believed that everything was under the control of particles called an atom. And atom just means unchoppable, not cuttable. Tome is to cut, A is negative. So the idea of an atom is an ancient idea. It's breaking down the world to parts. If I want to understand Braden, I move from the personal to the impersonal. I break him down to his molecules and that's the explanation of what I see here, Braden. So I decompose you in order to understand you. And so it's an ancient idea to conceive of the universe as made of some kind of fundamental particle called an atom. which you know is still going on. It's about down to something they theorize as strings now. But the idea of searching for an atom continues. And in Paul's mind, it's an idolatrous pursuit. It's a pursuit. The point is the Epicureans, who I'm trying to communicate, would have mocked people that bow down to physical statues. So they distanced themselves from that. But what they did put in its place, the absolute in their system, let's say, that was independent and controlling all things, was a material particle. And Paul thought of them as no better than someone who bows down to a physical image. Because only God is to be put in the absolute place as the one who governs all things. They put atoms there. That's an act of idolatry. The others that are mentioned there are the Stoics. The Stoics believed in a logos, which is why John used that in his gospel to describe Christ. Something they picked up from Heraclitus, the idea of an impersonal reason or force or law that is governing the universe. So the idea that everything happens for a reason is a Stoic idea and so their Their ethic was to try to live in sync with this plan. You have to kind of work at it to get it in your mind because you're used to thinking as a Christian. You say, well, that sounds like Providence, an idea that everything's under control of a plan and we're trying to live in sync with the plan and be content with the plan. It's very much like it, except it's an impersonal plan. It's the idea that there's not a person behind it, there's just this You just imagine that there's an engineering map that just happened to be there, and it is controlling everything, okay? So that's stoicism. It's the idea of there being a reason and a plan and a providence for everything. Nature is working itself out. And the goal is to be content with your lot and focus on the internal. And all that stuff you hear today, it's still among us today. It's not what happens, it's how you think of it, it's about your perspective. Any of this conversation that goes on but excludes God from the conversation is stoic. And it's idolatrous for that very reason. It does not, what does Romans 1 say, glorify God or give thanks. So it wants the birthday card, it wants the money from the card and throw the card away. It wants the plan, but without the Creator. It wants to ignore, as Paul says in Romans 1, and not have Him in mind. What I'm trying to communicate is the modern idea of particles governing all things, the modern idea of there just being laws of physics that govern all things is idolatry. Anyone who believes that is an idolater. Because they are believing that something other than God runs the universe. And that's an act of idolatry. And we see in Acts 17, Paul viewed it that way. But also someone who is so greedy to advance themselves, that that is what is motivating their sexuality, that they actually are using other people's bodies for their own self-gratification. through pornography or any other kind of illicit sexual behavior, Paul is saying that is ultimately rooted in a type of greediness, which is ultimately a form of idolatry, because this is a person who is worshipping themselves and their own desires to such an extent that they are okay with using other people's bodies. to gratify themselves. They have placed not a particle or a law as the absolute in their worldview that determines how they're living, but they've placed their own desires at the top such that people are even made to be sacrifices to them as if they're God. That's what's happening and illicit sexuality, that someone's conscience and their soul and their body is being sacrificed to them. You see, they have made themselves and put themselves in the place of God. And that's why in mid-stride, Paul can just add that term, idolater, and say, who is an idolater? So, those are the subjects of this statement. You need to nail that down. It's important because, well let me just say, immoral, who are the subjects again? The immoral, the impure, the greedy, and the idolatrous people. You need to nail down that idea of idolatry for this reason. There's an untranslated all. There's an untranslated adjective all. Paul says all of these people, but they don't translate it because he puts the negative later, which we'll get to. So the statement Paul actually makes is an all of these are non-inheritors. But that's kind of a... kind of a wooden, awkwardly shaped statement. And it's equivalent to, it's logically equivalent to say none of these are inheritors. And so that's how they translate it. But in translating, so I'm not faulting the translation or anything, but it is helpful to think about this all here. And we may miss thinking about it, so I want to point it out. He says all the immoral, the impure, the greedy, the idolaters, they're all included. And that is an important thought because what Paul has done here is he's followed the cord all the way to the wall. He started with sexuality, impurity, greed, idolatry. He's gone to the source So let me remind you again who He has in mind. This is what I want to save you from. He does not have in mind a Christian who is struggling to do the right thing. That's not who this verse is aimed at. Remember, immoral means given over. It's pornaya and the word means to sell your body. It means to give, you are surrendered over to illicit sexuality. which is a type of impurity and dirtiness and filthiness that you have surrendered yourself over to in this deed and in this way of life. Just a giving of yourself over to sin that makes you feel dirty as a type of greed because you have an insatiable desire for more and you have lifted it up to the point of idolatry such that You live based on, which is why Lewis said, the people who go to hell in their end are people to whom God says, thy will be done. So you have exalted your will to the place of deity. So self-deification is what has occurred. And it's important to mention because When your children throw fits, and the only reason they give for what they're doing is, I want, you need to understand the Bible says your children are idolaters. And they are headed for hell. No matter that they're born in a Christian home. That is the impulse of idolatry and this statement of Paul here is about them. So all is the idea, not just these people or these people, anyone. who is given themselves over without a fight, without repentance, without a strain, without a struggle, without shame, without care, that is who this verse is about. It's not about a struggling saint. Okay, that's the subject of his statement. What is the predicate? What does he say about this group of people that we know? He says, all of them do not have an inheritance in the kingdom. Paul is saying the statement of truth that you and I know with certainty, that we know that we know, is that people who surrender themselves over to sin in this way, over to uncleanness in this way, over to greediness in this way, over to idolatry in this way, without repentance, without strain, without war, without fight, that treat themselves as the ultimate absolute, such that they're willing to use other people. Paul is saying, you know that they're not going to heaven. It doesn't matter if their grandma goes to church. It doesn't matter if their dad was a pastor. It doesn't matter any other connection. Paul is saying, you know in your soul that those people are not going to heaven, and you know it with certainty. There's no doubt in your mind about it. It's not a matter of, I don't know, maybe. Paul is saying, you know it with certainty. Listen to what he said to Felix in Acts 24. He says in verse 14, But this I admit to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the law and that is written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection, both the righteous and the wicked. So Paul assumes that anyone who believes the Bible, he could say of them, I have a belief which they themselves share, that there will certainly be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the wicked. So what has Paul said here? He has said, he has asserted his truth, his second premise for his argument, he has told us that we know. that this group of humanity has a different destiny than the saints. But, although we know that internally, there are these outside influences that come in and try to erode this belief. This truth is erected in our mind, it tries to tear the flag down. Just as Satan came to Adam and Eve, and began to go to work on the truth and bring in lies. And Jesus called him the father of lies. John tells us in 1 John 2, many false prophets have gone out into the world. And over and over and over, beginning with Jesus, beware of false prophets. And many will come and try to deceive you. Many false Christs will appear. And how many times did Paul and John and the apostles and James repeatedly use the word deceive? And so, Paul's second point in verse 6 is not only to say that you know this, but to exhort you to keep on knowing this. So let's look at verse 6. Again, we are the plural subject here, but this verb, consider this verb, it's a rarely pondered verb, let. He says, let, verse 6. It's an action verb, and it originates from the German, which means to lie down and be passive. To let something happen is to just be passive and relax, like a guard laying down on the job. You let people pass through. that shouldn't pass through. So let with a negative means don't let, don't be passive, don't just lay down. And so the idea here is that sometimes people think you can be a good Christian just by simply what you don't do. Well, I'm not doing anything wrong. But this is an exhortation to exert energy, kind of like where he says, be devoted to prayer. It's not just don't live an immoral life, but do live a prayerful life. And it's not just like you can be in good standing with the Scriptures to just be not slapping anyone in the face or doing anything positively evil. There's a command here to expend your energy to be defensive. and to not let, to be a guard, to be discerning. Do you remember he already said that the goal is to not be children who are undiscerning and just swallow anything. So that you're literally the kids on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Come and get your lollipops. And you just run out to a meeting. It doesn't matter who the preacher is. It doesn't matter. You're an indiscriminate soul. You don't discriminate. between what you listen to, you're like a dog. Paul calls them dogs in Philippians 3, who don't know how to discriminate between food and vomit. And people who are in the world who will listen to anyone, people that their discernment meter doesn't go off when they move from Piper to Osteen are dogs. They don't know how to discriminate between vomit and good spiritual food. And Paul is saying that's a warning. Because actually, it's not possible to deceive the elect. And Paul says, you have an anointing and you're ultimately not going to be deceived in the end. But when you see someone going from this to that, as though they don't know that they just went from the buffet to the toilet, they have no spiritual discernment. In other words, it's not a good thing to be bringing in everything in the world when you begin to live like a man, please, or begin to threaten you and look down on you and make you feel bad for being discriminant. But remember the Bereans who said, we will listen and see whether these things are so. We will be discriminant. They have said to have a noble mind. So it's not a noble mind. G.K. Chesterton said the mind is meant to open in order to close on something, like a mouth. It's meant to open in order to bite the food. So you have an open mind only temporarily to find the food and latch down, to find the truth and to grab it. So who or what are we not to let in? Who are we to be on the defensive again? Well, he says no one. So let no one, so the whole human race is a potential subject here. He doesn't define it. It's indefinite. So it could apply to anyone who does what he says here, which is deceive you. Now, let's look at this word. It's the second word that people rarely think about. I would say that comment that preachers make in a sermon somewhere, if you miss anything, don't miss this. Don't miss let and don't miss dis on deceive. Deceive, you think of conceive. That means to take in, to conceive. So to deceive, it means to be taken in, let's say, the idiom that we use there. The idea is to be lured and to be trapped like an animal. This word was used of animals, of hunters that catch an animal with a trap in the leg to be deceived by use of camouflage or trickery, decoys. And it's a thing of trembling to hear people talk when they go to wherever it's at on a continuum, you can call it an unhealthy church all the way down to a sick church. And they read sick and listen to very, very negative, unhealthy preaching or books or whatever they're reading. And if you begin to have a conversation with them, you know this, maybe you've said it yourself, or you've heard people say that, their defense will be something like, well, they do preach some truth there. Have you ever heard that? You wonder how incredibly terrifying that is to say that, because what do you think it is that catches the animal? It's the camouflage. It's the decoy. Why does the duck come into the blind and get shot? Because there's some truth to this decoy. It looks like a regular duck in some ways. And when you put on your real tree shadow grass, and you have it on, you say, well, this is just cloth, this is just cotton, this is not grass. But in some way, it looks similar. So, some of the truth is exactly how you get deceived. Again, in Home Alone 2, why did Kevin get lost in New York? Because that man had on the same coat as his father. It was some of the truth. So the way you are lost is by following some of the truth. That's exactly how you are lost. So it's a terrifying thing when you say it or if anyone else ever, you know, why are you listening to this preacher? Well, they do have some truth. In my devotions this week, I was reading John in Revelation. At the very beginning, in verse 2, he says that, and he revealed it to a servant, John, who testified to all that he saw. You remember, Eli came to Samuel, he said, to you and more also if you do not tell me everything that He revealed to you. And you remember Joseph, he went to the man when he had the dream and he told him everything. And you remember Paul said, I'm free from the blood of all men because I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel. So the thing we say in court, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, That's the way preaching is to be done. And that's the way sharing is to be done from one Christian to another person. We're never just to share some of the truth and hold back the rest of it. What does Peter say in 1 Peter 2? He says, long for the pure milk, the whole milk. Not watered down skim milk. We wouldn't do that with anything else. So you go to your churches and you say, well, they do have some Kool-Aid in the water. We don't serve Kool-Aid that way. You give the children this watered down Kool-Aid, and they say, oh, it just tastes like water. You don't say, well, there's some Kool-Aid in there. Be satisfied. We don't even handle our Kool-Aid that way. But people are listening to sermons and things and remember Satan quotes Scripture. He says, well, on the other hand, this was written, right? He says this was written right here and this was written right here. That's exactly what he used to undermine them from the beginning. Oh, well, you're made in the image of God. Seems like you can be like God. You see? You use some truth and you co-opt it in a certain way. I mean, the Roman Catholic Church has a wonderful doctrine of the Trinity. Like, you could just take their doctrine of the Trinity and bring it right over into Protestantism, and it fits well. It fits good. It's a good doctrine. You see? But you wouldn't say someone is in a healthy condition who is looking to Roman Catholicism. or truth. So having some semblance of the real thing, some simulacrum of it is actually a terrible thing. It's the way that you're deceived. And so Paul says any kind of sum of the truth is deceptive. How you're deceived. Not by decoys or clothing, but by words. Let no one, he says, right? Let no one deceive you with words. And those words he calls empty. What does that mean? Like there's just blanks on the page, there's no words. What does he mean by empty words? Well, imagine I had a box up here and I told the children, I said, there's a prize in this box and you can get it at the end of the service. And then they come to the box at the end of the service and they look in there and there's nothing in the box. Empty is just an imagery of the idea of declaring something to be a reality that's not reality. It's an empty word because what it says is the case is not the case. And so it's empty. And so someone who would say to you, Paul, it's not connected to reality. Anyone who would try to convince you that the wrath of God does not come upon the sons of disobedience is speaking fairy tales to you. Remember this phrase, sons of disobedience, from chapter 2? He says, "...and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." See? So when Paul says it here, he's not thinking of the saints in Ephesus as sons of disobedience. That's not the reason he says this. A similar phrase is used in the Old Testament, the sons of Belial. The idea Jesus said, if you were the sons of Abraham, you would act like Abraham, but you're the children of your father. It's just the basic idea, like father, like son. That if you live a certain way, then you demonstrate who your father is. And so again, Paul is not thinking of a saint struggling to do their best but who still sins. He is thinking of someone who has all out given over to sin without regard for God, with no fear of God. Remember the thief on the cross? Have you no fear of God? Remember what he said to the other thief? I mean, that's the difference. Abraham said, I fear that there is no fear of God in this place, that I'm somewhere where people don't even care what their conscience says, don't even care what God says, don't even have any shame or fear or motivation to live a righteous life. They blow through everything. No repentance, no desire for holiness. Anyone who tells you that the wrath of God is not coming upon that person, Paul says, is equal to someone who tells you you can drink poison and still expect to live. It is empty words. It's equal to someone who tells you you can jump out of a plane without a parachute and still expect to live the next day. So what has Paul done here? in this second point. He's done something similar. One of my favorite speeches from Lincoln was very short. He pulled it out of his hat. And it was, I think, his second inauguration. Somebody will correct me. I don't remember. But he said, they're going to hoist the flag up. through the machinery, which if there be no fault in the machinery, they will do. And he said, once it is up, it'll be up to the people to keep it up. And that was his speech. And in a sense, what Paul has said, you already know this, it's already been erected in your mind that there's a different destiny. The human race is a mixture of saved and lost, and they have two different destinies. But there's all these forces that want to water that down and take it down. and make you think, well, and you don't know, and who, and is, and not, and that, and bring it all the way down and corrode that doctrine and that truth. And in a real sense, He's saying, it's up to you to keep it up. You have to be vigilant and resistant to false teaching. It's not a mark of humility to always be leadable, let's say. Because you have these verses that say, stand firm. I mean, let's put it this way, like Jeremy Poe ought to be able to talk to me in ways that I'm leadable. He ought to be able to share verses with me that like hit me and bother me and I want to move my life around to get in sync with them. But there ought to be certain things He could try to pull on me to do that He can't get me to do. That I resist that. Like, say He were to come to me and maybe say, hey, you were rude to so-and-so the way you spoke to Him. You need to be kind. Okay, that should mean something to me. And hopefully, if it's revealed to my conscience that I was, I'll repent of it and change it. But if He comes to me and says, I'd like you to believe that there are more ways to heaven than one, I should not be leadable to that. You see? So there's this resistant discernment that you listen and be a critically minded listener. Paul is exhorting us to do that here. He's saying you know it and keep knowing it. Resist and do not allow anyone to corrode anyone. Remember He puts it to the Galatians, even if we or an angel from heaven do not listen. So when He says no one, He means no one can corrode this. How would you do? What if you imagine right now everyone in this room but you turn and look at you and start trying to convince you that verse 5 is not true? That'd be hard. Paul, this is a command that says if that happened, Paul is saying resist every single person in the room. So, in conclusion, what has Paul done in these two verses? He has reasserted that the saints and the laws do have different destinies. And he's done this, number one, by reminding us that we know it, and number two, by exhorting us to keep knowing it. But remember, that was only to establish his argument, that premise of his argument. that therefore we're to live differently. So, the conclusion to this sermon, I believe it's the main point, and I hope you agree and see that, that Paul has in his mind in these two verses, is to instill in us the thought that we and lost people are two ships passing each other in the night. And therefore, what? What does he say next in verse 7? Do not become partakers with them. Do you see the way his mind is working? He's saying, you have two different destinies, and therefore, you should have two different lifestyles. You should live differently. And I think that's how these verses are meant to work. Paul does not, I hope you can see that, by sons of disobedience, and already describing you as no longer a son of disobedience in chapter 2. Often what happens is these verses, now look, if someone is living an all-out life of sin with no regard for God or repentance or whatever, then yes, this is a warning verse to them, but that's sort of a secondary function of them. that they're written, first of all, for the saints. First of all, for struggling Christians. And they are meant to remind you in an encouraging way that these are not your people. You don't belong there. And it's meant to sort of shock you back to reality. Wow, I'm different. Here's an example, I think, one for the adults and one for the children. Let's go children first here at the end. I was sharing it with Trevor because they're not going to be here. But my mind went to the old Jungle Book movie. Do you remember that scene where they go into the monkey's kingdom? and Baloo got swept away by the music. You remember that? I'm not going to start moving that way. And he's like, I'm gone, solid gone. And he's gone, and he's out there, and he's dancing, and they're with him, and they're receiving him. But why was it? Because he outwardly acted like them and appeared to be one of them, but it was eventually revealed that he's not one of them. And it's such a beautiful thing. There's been times throughout history that men of God have counseled people who are struggling with their assurance, and they just could not get it settled, and they were struggling so bad. Martin Luther was one of them. He told a guy one time, he said, look, just go sin. Go live a life of sin. Conrad Murrell is another one who did it. He said, if you can, you will. He had that saying. You're dealing with this and that. Charles Leiter is another one who I got it from in his sermon on Romans 8. He says, I hope you cuss as much as you want to. And I hope you commit all the sexual sin as much as you want to. And I hope you avoid reading your Bible as much as you want to. I hope you don't go to church as much as you want to. But the thing is, you see, if you're a Christian, you want to. So, it's really encouraging to be reminded again, there is a fundamental distinction between me and the lost as a result of what God has done in my salvation that I cannot erase. Even if I go back into the world, it doesn't erase it. And it's almost like it's then that I discover how real it is that like, wow, these really aren't my people. I'm not one of them. And that's not really who I am. And that's wonderful because that's the foundational thought of sanctification in the Christian life. You're not just beginning by trying to become something you're not. It begins with realizing who God has recreated you to be. And then you go and become that on the outside. So the other one I thought of was Peter. gathered around the fire there with them. I don't know. He could do that. So, you know what that's like. You go somewhere, you find yourself with a bunch of lost people, and you've compromised a little bit, and here you are. And no one else in the whole room may even know this. But you're like Lot and Sodom. What did Peter say? The soul of that righteous man was vexed while he was there. Can you identify with that? I mean, that really gets into... Is it real on the inside? Or are you just outwardly doing things? Are you at home with just a total filth of lost people? Or do you grieve and you just... You find yourself here, but no place where you properly fit because you have a home whose builder and maker is God? You're a pilgrim and a sojourner in the real sense. You don't fit. That's an encouraging thing. You should feel like E.T. amongst lost people that you're just trying to hide it and fit in and become all things and love people, but the reality is you're an alien. You're not one of them. Well, Maybe a more modern example to end with other than two ships passing in the night is I thought a modern equivalent would be two airport passengers. You go to an airport hub and the planes are flying all kind of different directions. You could imagine passing someone in an airport, maybe you're on your way to New York, and you've got your puffer jacket and everything, and you're ready to go to New York where it's freezing cold, and these people are headed to South America, they're in their Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and y'all are passing each other in the airport. I mean, temporarily you're together, you may be at the same stand, ordering a coffee or a drink or a donut or a cinnamon roll. But y'all are going to two different places. And what would you say if your children and everyone started taking off their puffer jacket and they're dressing like this guy? You're like, we're going to two different places. This is just a temporary... It's not fitting that you behave that way. That is all Paul is telling the saints here. That's all he's saying. It's like, you're at the convenience store with this guy, he is going a million miles in a different direction in eternity than you. This is not who you should behave like. They say at the continental, in the Rockies, I forget what they call it, the actual, but there's the continental divide, that a drop of rain can be falling down at the top of this peak, and if it falls on this side, it'll end up in the Atlantic Ocean. If it falls on this side, it'll end up in the Pacific. It's another idea. You're right there with people. Do you understand you're at the convenience store with people who are going into outer darkness? and you're going into the new heaven and the new earth, totally, completely different destinations. And let that reality settle in on you and realize, what have I to do with behaving the way they behave? That's not fitting. So hold this in your mind and think to yourself, therefore, I need to have myself thinking of the gospel so that I can be this thankful person and not this greedy person. So put off greediness, Paul says, but put it off as a thing that doesn't belong on you. Do you see that? Do it that way. Don't put it off like, I really am a greedy person, but I want to conquer greed. No, no, no, no, no. God has recreated you, Ephesians 2.10. Four good works that this doesn't fit. It's like a garment that really, truly is not who I am. I'm not a greedy person. and deep down in my heart, because God has remade me on the inside. And so this is sort of a leftover, like, blue, like I'm getting sucked in here a little bit, temporarily, but it's not really who I am. And so, you need to be reminded, take all this stuff, you talk about coming out, the secularists have a coming out, that that's really what a Christian is. There's this pressure to just be a transformer almost, like just appear to be a car, but you're not a regular car, right? You can transform and unfold and be who you really are, and tell the truth, and tell someone something or serve in a certain way from a pure motive. These are all supernatural things. Anyway, what a wonderful It's hard to say. You say, well, man, it's so negative. But isn't it so wonderful to be reminded again in your conscience to be able to testify with you on the inside that I really am different? And just be reminded again that the Lord really has saved you on the inside. And that means these outward things don't have to define you as like, oh, I'm this, One guy had been helping this homeless guy. He started going to alcoholics, anonymous thing. It's so terrible. It's like on, what is it, Find a Nemo? They had those, like, the guys that were in the rehab, remember the steps made? Like, that's not Christianity. Like you're falling into sin. Remember the steps. Like, no. Like, I am an alcoholic. No, that's horrifying to tell yourself. But it's so wonderful to realize the Gospel is not just us positively saying something, but we're positively saying things that are realities. Like, you really are a new creation. You really do hate sin. You really do love righteousness. See, that's the question. Do you love the things that you once hated and hate the things that you once loved? And only God can do that in your heart. And if He's done that, how does this book end? So wonderfully. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus with an incorruptible love. Something has happened to you on the inside, even if you go sin, even if you're depressed, at your lowest, you're still higher than an unbeliever. Because this reality is in your heart. It's an amazing, amazing thing. So even though it's negative, the verses are meant to remind us, as Mark Lloyd-Jones used to always say, constantly he would keep saying, the most amazing thing in all the world is to be a Christian. And that just summarizes, he said, all our problems is a failure to know what it means to be a Christian. And just if you have that thought in your head through this sermon, wow, I'm not one of those. Not my sermon. Through these verses that Paul has reminded you that that's not who you are. That is the first propulsion to live a holy life. That's why you should read your Bible. Not out of condemnation, but just this reminder, wow, I belong reading my Bible. That's who I am. I should read my Bible. but it's all flowing from what God has already done. Let's pray. Lord, thank You today for all the saints who are here and for this simple means of grace called a local church and preaching of Your Word. And Lord, We are just going through verse by verse, Lord, all the books, trusting that all of it is inspired and good and a real profit to us to hear it. And so we just pray, Lord, that You would use these verses that we've just studied together to do the work in us that it's meant to do and to cause us to to enjoy the gospel and to make progress. Lord, pray for everyone here, for the hearts of everyone here, that your word would truly taste good and be honey and encouragement for the soul, be a nourishment to us. Thank you for this day. Lord, thank you for all the precious saints who are here. We pray for those who are not able to be here today. We thank you for one another. Lord, deeply we thank you for one another's friendship and fellowship in the gospel that you've so kindly given us thus far in our pilgrimage. We pray we would faithfully continue to do good to one another, and to love one another, and to be so thankful for one another, and ultimately all of it flowing from being thankful that I once was lost, and now I'm found, was blind, and now I see. So keep us near this cross and this truth. and help us to bless each other, Lord, as we keep walking toward Your Kingdom. In Jesus' name, Amen.