I would like to speak to you for a few minutes on Ephesians chapter 5 from verse 1 to verse 20 Ephesians 5 from verse 1 to verse 20 now if you have heard the previous address on Ephesians you will know that I've already included verses 1 and 2 of chapter 5 in that address but I include them again here just to make it complete in fact there should be no divisions at all in this extended section of the Ephesians from chapter 4 verse 1 right to the end chapter 4 verse 1 the apostle opens writing to the Ephesian believers he opens with this what I might call the preface to this extended section I urge you he says to live a life worthy of the calling you have received And that opening comes again and again in various forms throughout this extended section four to six. Those three chapters are the outworking of the gospel in the lives of believers. The first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul has set out the great principles of the gospel. Chapter four, five, and six is the outworking of that gospel within the lives of believers. I urge you, he says, to live a life worthy of the calling you have received, the gospel. He says in verse 17, I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the pagans do, but you must live as Christ would live. And that chorus goes on and on throughout this book. This is what he's saying now all the way through. consistent lives, consistent with the gospel you have received, the calling you have received. Now I'm going to be deliberately, deliberately going to be brief on chapter 5 from verse 1 to verse 20 because I just want to give an overview of it. I have some points to make which are vital points. I can't over stress, can't exaggerate, over exaggerate their importance. And I want to just give a simple brief overview to make these points that I believe are so vital today. So I'm not going to look at the individual commandments here. In any case, I believe these commandments are self-explanatory. They are perfectly simple and plain in what they mean. It's the carrying out of them, of course. Now, remember, he is writing to believers. They were pagans. Now when I say pagan I don't mean that they're worshipping stone idols and that kind of thing. They might be doing that. But they can be worshipping gods of all sorts. Sex, entertainment, pleasure, power, money, job, family, car, anything, anything and everything. Self usually is the great god. Pagans are non-Christians. and Paul is writing to those who were pagans or else they were Jews Gentiles, yes, but they were outside of Christ, that's the point and they've been brought into Christ by the Holy Spirit and they're converted and he's writing to believers I'm addressing believers in this short address if you're an unbeliever, my friend you're still in the pagan world that Paul describes here you may be very respectable you may be riches But outside of Christ, you're in all the pollution and darkness and filthiness that Paul describes here. This is the way the world works. This is 2,000 years ago he's writing this, but he could have written it this morning. This is what's happening in the world today. And Paul says you must not live like it. You must not live like the pagans. For example, what am I talking about? Sexual immorality. Mustn't be a hint of it, he says. Greed. Now greed is one of the great gods. Sex is a great god. Food is a great god. I'm speaking for the United Kingdom. I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world. But if you took the cooking programs out of the television programs, there'd be an enormous number of gaps. people are forever apparently cooking and looking at preparing food and eating it well not forever because half the time they're doing that and the other half the time they're looking at slimming diets and recipes this is one of the great gods of the age Paul says in verse 5 that we mustn't be greedy talking to believers impure immoral these are idols he says he calls them such such a man he says in verse 5 is an idolater sexual immorality sex is a great god that's an idolatry living in darkness unwholesome unhelpful coarse joking immorality of every kind in word thought indeed drunkenness and so on I think all the commands here are self-evident and plain Paul says you must not live as you used to live. You must not walk as you used to walk. Peter says the same. They all say the same, the apostles. You must not live as you used to live. Do not be partners with them. Don't join in. And then he goes on to the positive and says that we must live as children of light. We are in the light. We must live as children of the light. each other, spiritual things, hymns, spiritual songs, sounds and so on. We must be filled with the Spirit. I think the positive is also self-evident and plain here. So I'm not going to dwell upon the individual precepts, commands here, but they are here. This is the law of Christ, but it's not the law in the sense of the old covenant law, but it is the law of Christ. And Paul says, I insist on these things and so on. So what points am I trying to make here? Well, I think this passage, as the other passages, are vital in today's world. Believer. I'm speaking to believers. One dreadful error, which is rampant today, is Santamanianism. Now, you may never have heard the name, but you've certainly met the doctrine. What is that? Well, in essence, this is what it is. All we have to do is assent to certain truths. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He died on the cross. His blood takes away sin. He rose from the dead. He is the Son of God and so on and so on. All these doctrines are true and all we have to do is assent to them. I believe them. I say that they're true and that we are told is saving. It's nothing to do with the heart. It's to do with the head and the mind. But what about the life? That does not matter. That's an option. So long as you assent to the truth, then you're saved. Sanctification, godliness of life, is of no consequence. You can be fully assured, because you've said the prayer, because you've assented to the truth, Jesus is your Savior. He may not be your Lord, but He is your Savior. You've assented to the truth. You're what they call a carnal Christian. A gross misrepresentation of the Apostles' words. When Paul was saying to the Corinthians, he said, if you live like carnal Christians, so-called, then you're carnal, full stop, you're pagans, you're unconverted. Assent is not saving faith. Go back over these early first three chapters, go over the fourth chapter again, go over it all my friend, go over all the New Testament. A man believes with the heart. Of course there must be a scent. You obey from the heart, though, says Paul to the Romans, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. The gospel must come into the mind and instruct us, yes, but it must penetrate the heart. And it's not just simply a system of faith and a system of doctrines. It is Christ himself we must not only assent to Christ, we must receive Christ and love Christ and trust Christ and lean upon Christ. We must be joined to Christ. It's not just mental assent. People say, well, it's like sitting on a chair. You believe it will bear your weight. That's natural faith. It's like believing that Elvis is alive. He's not, so that's false faith. But if Christ is alive, that's true faith. But they're exactly the same faith, they tell us. Rubbish! Diabolical rubbish! Saving faith is trusting Christ. Now, believer, this passage deals with that false doctrine that is just a scent and the life does not matter look how Paul insists upon a life that counts work out he says your own salvation for it's God who works in you now look at what he says here all these precepts let me sum them up in one word what is he saying here? how must I live? I can sum it up in one word Christ How would Christ live in this circumstance? What would Christ do with this food? How would Christ view this television program? What would Christ say at this time? Would Christ enter this relationship? Can I think like this? Would Christ think like it? Would he speak like this? Would he act like this? Would he go here? If you put all these commandments together, I think you will find, as in other passages, Galatians 5 for example, you can sum it up, live and think and act as Jesus Christ would, because Christ is in you, and you are being conformed to Christ. The Sandemanians are wrong. If a man lives as a pagan, he's not living as a Christian, he can call himself what he likes, but he is a pagan. He may be a religious pagan, he may be an assenting pagan, he may be conformed, as it were, to some sort of Christianity, but unless Christ is in his heart and Christ is living out in his life by his Spirit, a life for the glory of Christ and like Christ, he is yet a pagan. He can claim all the assurance and all the confidence he will. Look at this passage again, look at the entire section Ephesians 4 to 6 and see what I'm saying and see if it's not true. Look at Romans 12 to 16, look at Colossians, look anywhere in the New Testament and see if what I'm saying to you is true or not. If a man does not live as Christ would live, he is showing he is not a Christian, whatever his profession. Now this passage deals with that. but it also deals with another thing which is prevalent in the churches and it's been here now for four or five hundred years this idea that the believer must come under the law and look to the law and the law must whip him and drive him by fear into sanctification I'm talking of John Calvin I'm talking of the Westminster Confession I'm talking of the 1689 Particular Baptist Confession, the Savoy Declaration and many other declarations like that. And at a much lower level, how many men are preaching recipes and rules and conformities? And this makes people sanctified. Now you may say there are rules here, but yes there are, but look, am I not right in saying this? Wherever there's a rule here, wherever there's a principle here, What does the apostle join it to? What is his argument all the way through? What has been his argument all the way through this chapter? These two chapters, four and five. It's based on the first three chapters, the whole gospel doctrine and he works it out again and again. Let me show it to you. Here. What I'm saying again, let me make it clear. Sanctification is being conformed to Christ. It's not the law, it's Christ. The standard is not the law, it's Christ. And what does Paul say here? I want you to be like this, like this and like this because of Christ, because of the gospel. Now listen, chapter 5 verse 1. Be imitators of God therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us and so on. Verse 3, why should we avoid sexual immorality, pornography and all the rest of it? Because these are improper for God's holy people. Verse 5, why should we avoid greed, overeating, indulgence, immorality, impurity? Such a man is an idolater. Why should we avoid it? Because if we live like that we have no inheritance in the kingdom of God in Christ and of God so therefore if we have this inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God let us have done with immorality and impurity and greed don't be partners with them if God's wrath verse 7 comes down upon the pagans why do we live like pagans like we used to verse 8 why should we live goodness, truth, verse 9. Why? Because we're the children of light, verse 8. Once we were darkness, and we were in darkness, but now we're in the light, and the light is in us. We're the children of light. Live as children of light. Can you see his gospel motive all the way through? Look at verse 19. Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. How can we do that? Go back to the verse before. Be filled with the Spirit. We have the Spirit of God. Don't be drunk with wine, verse 18, but be filled with the Spirit. Be exuberant in the Spirit. Don't loosen your tongue by alcohol. Loosen your tongue by the Spirit. Don't have a free spirit by alcohol. Have it by Christ through His Spirit. And he sums it up in verse 20, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The context here the immediate context and the whole context of the passage and the whole context of the Book of Ephesians is this Trinitarian salvation, electing love of God the Father the great accomplishment of that work by the Lord Jesus Christ to bring the elect to salvation the forming of the elect into one glorious body by the Spirit bringing them to regeneration, repentance, faith to Christ and so on with the Spirit, marking them with the Spirit, joining them with Christ. These are the motives here. It's not law, my friend. It's Christ. It's not just rules and regulations. It's all joined with Christ. Because we have been forgiven much, we love much. It's a life of love. We obey God not out of fear, but out of love. Oh, he has loved me with an everlasting love. How can I sin against him? Christ has saved this believer. How can I be hard against him? We're equal, these believers, in me. We're all one together in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we speak to each other. In verse 19, we communicate with each other. We share with each other. We nurture each other. the picture is of the whole body joining together one holy temple for Christ and it's all under the gospel in the gospel by the Spirit under Christ of course it has to be calibrated and that's what Paul says in verse 17 we understand what the Lord's will is We must live as children of light, verse 8. We have to find out, verse 10, what pleases the Lord. Now, how do we find that out? Well, our friends say, they say to us, well now, you must go to the law for that, the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments? Well, yes, as nuanced by Christ, of course, in the law of Christ. But I listened to Christ praying in the garden when he said, Father, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. We go to the whole scripture, don't we? And the whole scripture calibrates and disciplines and instructs us. And what does the whole scripture do? It speaks of Christ, doesn't it? Christ is in all the scriptures. What am I saying? The supreme motive, the glorious motive, the glorious power of sanctification is not the law, not a whip, it's love, it's Christ, it's the gospel. These are the two points I want to make. This passage slaughters Sandemanianism, easy-believism, and it demolishes this legal preaching. Am I addressing a Sandemanian? You need to be converted, my friend, and have Christ in the heart. Am I preaching to a Sandemanian preacher? Preach Christ with a heart, my friend. Don't be content with mere Ascend. And a life lived for God is imperative. For the glory of God is imperative. Am I speaking to believers who are locked in rules and recipes and regulations, law? Look to Christ. Remember what Christ has done for you. The Father, the Son and the Spirit have planned and purposed and accomplished for you and done in you. Think upon Christ and live for Christ. How can I serve my Christ? How can I please my Jesus? And be assured, be confident, and be holy in Christ. Are you a law preacher, my friend? Then preach Christ. I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I probably will I certainly have failed again to convey what I want to say. I don't know whether this hymn now, you probably don't know it, let me read it to you. It's a hymn by Antoinette Paulino, translated by John Wesley. Antoinette lived from 1616 to 1680, a long time ago, but has she not caught the spirit of the gospel? Let me read it to you. Paul says, speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I'm going to speak to you in the words of Antoinette. Listen to her. Come, Savior Jesus from above, assist me with thy heavenly grace. Empty my heart of earthly love, and for thyself prepare the place. Oh, let thy sacred presence fill and set my longing spirit free, which pants to have no other will for day and night to feast on thee. While in this region here below no other good will I pursue, I'll bid this world of noise and show, with all its glittering snares, adieu. That path with humble speed I'll seek, in which my Saviour's footsteps shine. Nor will I hear, nor will I speak, of any other love but thine. Henceforth may no profane delight divide this consecrated soul. Possess it thou who hast the right as Lord and Master of the whole. Wealth, honor, pleasure, and what else this short enduring world can give, tempt as ye will my soul repels to Christ alone resolve to live. Thee I can love, and Thee alone, with pure delight and inward bliss, to know Thou tak'st me for Thine own. Oh, what a happiness is this! Nothing on earth do I desire but Thy pure love within my breast. This, only this, will I require, and freely give up all the rest well that was that dear lady let me close with reading the words of the apostle as I do so unbeliever listen to this you're in all the rottenness and pollution that this man describes here you can only be free of it washed of it by coming to the blood of Jesus you can only live a life contrary to this utter paganism and darkness by being in Christ, so come to Jesus now. Believer, this is all true of you, what I'm reading. May it be true. May it be true in all our lives. May we live it out for the glory of God. And those of us who are preachers, may we preach Christ and only Christ. I read this now then to you and close. Be imitators of God, therefore. Writing to believers, remember, Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure, no immoral, impure, or greedy person, such a man is an idolater, as any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of such things, God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, don't be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And find out what pleases the Lord. have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible. For it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise, but as wise. making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Don't get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with sounds and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.