Let's all stand together. Take your Bible, open to the book of Ephesians. We're going to read the scripture, chapter 5, and we're going to look at verses 1 to 3 quickly this morning as we read God's Word together. Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 1. Be therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Verse three, but fornication and uncleanness and covetousness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Thank you so much. You may be seated. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you for the privilege we have of studying scripture together. Lord, would you please bless us this morning as we go to your word, open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things from the scripture, and help us, Lord, to apply it to our life, we pray in Jesus' wonderful name, amen. When I was a teenager, I loved to read biographies of great Christians, and I read a biography that had impact on me about H.A. Ironside. He was the pastor at Moody Memorial Church, And Dr. Einstein had a warm and beautiful manner in which he communicated the scripture. And one time he was traveling across the country on a train, and he happened to bump into an order of Catholic nuns of religious order, and he had a great time talking with them about the truth of scripture. And after about an hour of discussion, they got on the subject of saints. Catholics believe that in order to be declared a saint, you have to meet a list of qualifications. And they were talking about that. And one of the qualifications, of course, is doing a miracle. But Dr. Aronside asked, have you ever seen a saint? And the lady said, no, we've never seen a saint. And Dr. Aronside said, well, would you like to see one? And they said, oh, yes. So he kind of stood up and took a step back and he said, you're looking at Saint Harry. He went on to tell them what the Bible had to say about saints. You see, you become a saint not by being canonized by the church, but by being baptized by the Spirit into Jesus Christ. In other words, you become a saint the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. So really, as the old saying goes, there's only two groups of people in the world. There's the saints and the aints. You're either a saint or you're not. And while you don't have to perform a miracle if you're a saint to be called a saint, there are some expectations that the Bible gives if you are a saint of God. God calls us to live differently if you're a saint of God. You're supposed to be different from the rest of the world. The key phrase in this whole passage we found in verse number three where Paul uses the expression, as becometh saints. And Paul's implying that there's a certain standard of behavior that God expects of his saints. There's Paul saying, look, there are certain things that are not becoming of a saint. These are certain things that saints don't do. Now, the word for saint in the Bible is the Greek word hagios. It literally means holy one, and it means to be set apart to be holy. In salvation, God has called us to be holy. He has set us apart unto himself, out of the world unto himself, and he expects for us to live holy lives. God takes sinners, and through his wonderful grace, makes them saints. And now God wants you to live up to that calling. I read that down in Bolivia, the Bolivians have a prosperous industry where they make hats out of rabbit's fur. And Paul Harvey commented that the Bolivians have a way of making a hat or pulling a hat out of a rabbit. And likewise, God has a way of making saints out of sinners. Now remember, in the book of Ephesians, in this particular section, Paul is writing to believers about this process called sanctification, becoming more like Christ. And he uses the imagery of putting off and putting on, if you remember. Being saved is, after you're saved, you take off all the soiled garments of your old life and you put on the new garments of salvation. That's a continual process. Again, salvation is a call to holiness. And really, there's three types of holiness that the Bible talks about. There's positional holiness, that is, the moment you trust Jesus as your Savior, you are declared righteous and holy before God. Did you know that? When God looks at you, he looks at you through his Son, Jesus Christ. And he looks at you as completely holy. That's positional holiness. But then secondly, there's progressive holiness, or we could call this practical holiness. That is, we begin that process of sanctification where we progress towards Christlikeness in our life. If you're here today and you're saved, God is doing that process in your life. Wherever there's justification, there is the process of sanctification. If there is no process of sanctification, there has been no justification. Every one of you, if you have named the name of Christ, if you know Jesus, God is in this process of making you more like Christ. There's positional holiness, there's progressive holiness, but then there's perfect holiness. You say, when will I be perfectly holy? When you go see Jesus. When you go see the Lord, that's when your salvation is complete. If we belong to God, God has set us apart unto himself, and we are in this process of being made holy. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 7.1, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Perfecting is the word epitaleo, that is working towards a goal, working towards a completion. And what is the goal? We are working towards practical holiness in our life. However, that's not an easy process. If you're a believer living in this world, you know that it's not easy. We live in such an anti-God atmosphere. We live in such an X-rated society, and the world is trying to conform us into its mold. It's constantly trying to corrupt the believer. But Paul is encouraging these Ephesians to behave like saints. Now, how? Well, what I want you to see from this passage of Scripture, there are three things that characterize saints, three distinctive qualities of a saint of God. A saint is known by, first of all, who they imitate. who they imitate. Look at verse 1. Be, therefore, followers of God as dear children. The word followers here is the Greek word memtes, it's where we get the word mime or where we get the word mimic. It's actually translated in other places in the New Testament as imitators. Be imitators of God. Now, Paul, in fact, uses this word in many places in his letters when he writes. Did you know that in the Greco-Roman world, philosophers encouraged their students to imitate them in all manner of life? Religious worshipers that worshiped in the Greco-Roman mystery religions were encouraged to imitate their god. And Paul's kind of taking this ancient concept and saying, look, the only person worth imitating is Jesus Christ. Be imitators of God, and God was revealed in Jesus Christ. He's the one true God. None of the other gods that you supposedly worship in your religions have they laid down their life for you, have they sacrificed themselves for you, but Jesus did. And so you're to imitate him. Imitation is the highest form of exaltation and flattery. When we imitate the ways of the world, we exalt evil and the devil is flattered. But when we imitate the ways of truth, we exalt God. In 3 John 11, John wrote this, Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God. Whoever does evil has not seen God. You're to be imitators of goodness and righteousness personified in Jesus Christ. Now, first of all, look at the plea. I call this the plea. Again, in verse number one, be ye therefore imitators of God as dear children. Again, the word therefore points back to everything Paul has already talked about. Remember, he's been talking about this process of sanctification. And so again, he's saying be followers, copy Christ likeness. The word again means to act like. Paul told the Corinthians, therefore, I exhort you, be imitators of me. And then later on, he said, be imitators of me just as I am of Christ. And so we are to imitate Christ. That's the plea Paul is giving. But then notice the purpose. He says, as dear children, Children have a unique capacity to mimic their parents. And this is the idea here. You are to reflect your heavenly Father. You are to have the nature and the characteristics of your heavenly Father. You are His beloved children. Peter wrote this, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." When Peter said, not fashioning yourselves, that's the word schismato, that is, don't pattern yourself after the world. You know, that's the idea. You don't pattern your life after the world. No, now as obedient children, you fashion yourself according to Christ. You don't follow the old mold, you follow Christ. And so, that leads us to the pattern. Look in verse 2. and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." Again, Christ is the model. He's the one that you model your life after. Now, to imitate someone, you have to know all about that person. There is an article that I read this week. It's called, The Imitation Game, Playing a Real Person in Five Steps. And what it was, it was an article about actors. And actors sometimes will play a person of history. You ever see a movie where an actor plays a famous person? And they portray that person so very well. How do they do that? They literally transform themselves into that person. Well, according to this article here, it talks about that. It says they must set aside a great deal of time to study the person. Sometimes it takes years. They have to research their life, their writings, their sayings. They study what makes that person, what major events shape their life, they study all that, they learn to talk like that person, they learn to walk like that person, they learn to dress like that person. Their article said this, you cannot imitate someone you do not know. And one man wrote about being paid to imitate the famous comedian Charlie Chaplin, where he studied all his movies, he studied exactly how he walked until he had him down completely. where people just could see Charlie Chaplin in him. Well, that's the principle here. Look, if you're going to imitate Jesus Christ, you have to know all about him. How do you know about Christ? There's no movies about him. All we know of Christ is right here in the Word of God. If you want to know about Jesus, study the life of Christ in Scripture. Listen to his words. Jesus said this in John 539, search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, for they are they which testify of me. And Paul says here, walk in love as Christ also has loved us. Paul summarizes the life of Jesus with this expression, he has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Paul is describing what walking in love is. It is selfless, sacrificial acts on the behalf of others. Paul said, if you want to walk in love, just look at Christ. Look at how he gave himself for you. He was a sacrifice for your sin. His death satisfied the wrath of God for your sin. That is the meaning of the phrase, a fragrant aroma. His death satisfied the justice and wrath of God against our sin. You must come to the cross and trust in Christ as your atoning sacrifice to be reconciled to God. Then, with the power of the Holy Spirit, you can walk like he walked. You can pattern your life after Christ. Study how Christ walked in scripture. But then notice the process. Again, he says, walk in love. This is the fifth time that Paul used the word walk in the book of Ephesians. The word walk here implies a step-by-step process. It's a steady process. It's all of your life. All of the rest of our life should be devoted to walking in love. step-by-step like Jesus Christ. Again, that is sanctification. So a saint is known by, first of all, who they imitate. Who are you imitating in your life? You certainly don't want to imitate the ways of the world. No, you want to imitate Christ. But then secondly, a saint is known by not only who they imitate, but number two, what they tolerate. What they tolerate, look at verse number Three and four, now really the key expression in these next two verses is in verse number three. By the way, this whole passage is made up of four commands that Paul gives. The first one is be imitators, and then let no man deceive you, that's in verse number six. And then also in verse seven, do not be partakers with them. These are all commands, kind of control what Paul's saying in this passage. But the command here in verse number three is what I want you to see. where it says here, let it not be named among you. In verse three, let it not be once named among you. In other words, there are certain behaviors that are not tolerated as saints of God. It's improper to say the least. We don't do this if we're saints. And Paul mentions two categories of things that we should not tolerate. as God's saints. First of all, filthy conduct. Back up to verse three. But fornication, and all uncleanness, and covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. The word fornication, pornea, where we get the word pornography, it's a general word that includes all types of sexual immorality. And that's the idea here. The city of Ephesus was the home of the Temple of Diana. That was a big temple, one of the wonders of the world it was called. But in that temple, there was the worst type of immorality that took place. It was associated with that pagan religion. Have you ever seen statues of the goddess Diana? They're very lewd statues. And all types of temple prostitution took place there. I mean, the influence of this temple made Ephesus a wicked, wicked place to live. Ritual prostitution was the way of life. Now, many Christians after they were saved, unfortunately, some of them were lured back into that type of behavior, which should not be. Because there was this cultural acceptance of this kind of sin. It was even exalted. And so therefore, some Christians would go back into these pagan temples, they would get involved again in some of these rituals, engaging in filthy behavior. And Paul says, look, this should not be named among you. This is not what you do as a saint of God. Like the Ephesians, we're living in an X-rated society today, beloved. According to recent polls, many who call themselves Christians struggle with all types of these types of sins. In today's world, because of the internet, social media, smartphones, all kinds of filthy images can be put in front of people's eyes all the time. You have to be diligent about guarding your heart. You can't be passive about this. Some Christians remind me of the little boy whose mother had just baked a fresh batch of cookies and she placed them in a cookie jar and she gave strict instructions, you are not to touch these cookies until after dinner. But it wasn't long until she heard the lid on the jar move. And she called out, she said, son, what are you doing? And he answered, he said, my hand is in the cookie jar resisting temptation. Well, the fact is no one can resist temptation with your hand in the cookie jar. And by the way, there are open cookie jars all around us. The ubiquitous cookie jars of our culture are on TV screens, on the internet. They are in magazines, on billboard signs, and in advertisements. There are living cookie jars everywhere trying to get people to partake. But when the wares are removed from the jar and tasted, the sweetness soon turns to rot. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 20, verse 17. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. We're not to take part to any of these kind of behaviors as Christians. He mentions fornication, he mentions uncleanness. Look again in verse three, all uncleanness from the Greek word eikatharsis. This again refers to sexual sin, but it's even a more general word referring to the lifestyle of just filthy living. The word simply means dirty. You're not to be dirty, you're not to be morally dirty. We could say it like this, living like a pig or living like a dog. That's literally what he's saying here. But then he also mentions covetousness in verse three. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you. Covetousness here is an interesting word. It literally means overreaching, overreaching. The word describes someone who has something, but they're not satisfied with what they have, and so what they do is they reach out over someone else to take what they have and make it their own. They add it to their stack. Remember when David committed sin with Bathsheba, God sent the prophet Nathan to uncover David's sin and to rebuke him. Remember that Nathan gave David a parable about a wealthy shepherd who had all these sheep and he had a visitor come. And rather than taking one of the lambs from his own flock to kill it and dress it and feed this man, there's a neighboring poor man, all he has in the world is one little ewe lamb. And this wealthy shepherd takes the one poor man's ewe lamb and kills it to feed his guest. And then you remember how David was enraged, and he said, this man who did this is gonna die, and Nathan turns the tables on David, and Nathan says, thou art the man. You're the man. And then this is what God said through Nathan to David. David, I've blessed you with so much. I've given you so much. and that wasn't enough. You had to reach over and take another man's wife and commit adultery with her, and by doing that, what you've done is you've despised the gifts that I have given you. What you're basically saying is it's not enough, I need more, I deserve more. That's what covetousness is. And it's saying, God, even though you've given me a lot, I deserve better, I deserve more. That's why the Bible calls covetousness idolatry. Because what you're doing is you're worshiping yourself. You're putting yourself on the throne and you're saying, God, you owe me more. I deserve more. And that's what David did. But as saints of God, this is not to be named among you, the Bible says, that kind of covetousness. Filthy conduct, but also filthy conversation. Look at verse four. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient. Filthiness here just refers to bad language, cursing. just using obscene language, coarse language. There seems to be a younger generation of pastors and Christians who don't think cussing or swearing or using obscene language is wrong. I understand that. I read of a Memphis pastor who is called the cussing pastor. because he uses cuss words in his sermons, and because of that, he's kind of become somewhat of an internet sensation. And he defends his behavior by saying, well, you know, the Bible doesn't really say what words are cuss words, or what words are bad words. Well, that's true, the Bible doesn't give specific bad words, and thank God it doesn't. but it does give a general principle, and that is you're never to use obscene, profane language, vulgar language, sexually vulgar language. That should never be tolerated. It is unbecoming of anyone who calls themselves a saint. It reveals the heart. Remember what Jesus said? He said, out of a good man, or a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil. Out of the abundance of the heart," what? The mouth speaks. Paul would call any cussing pastor a moron. You say, that's pretty harsh. Why would you say that? Well, because look in verse four where he says, nor foolish talking. The Greek word here for foolish talking is moro logia. It's a combination of two words, moro, moron, logia, words, words of a moron. Words of a moron, there are words that are void of wisdom, void of faith, that are ungodly words, filthy, faithless, foolish words, and you shouldn't be using them. Some people just put their mouth in the gear before their mind is engaged. Their motto is ready, fire, aim. And then there's foolish jesting. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting." It's a very interesting word here. When we think of a jester, we think of someone who's always telling jokes. And that's not what the word means here. There's nothing wrong with good, clean humor. Even Solomon said that there's a time for laughter. Laughter is a gift from God. But there is a humor which is not good or godly. And the Greek word here is made of two words which means to turn easily. And this word describes a person who can easily turn anything into a dirty joke or coarse humor. Any situation or any circumstance, they have this immoral wit where they can turn it and make it filthy. They can make it dirty. In fact, there are certain stand-up comedians who make a living doing this. There are certain things about which a saint of God should never joke or laugh. So a saint is known by who they imitate. A saint is known by what they tolerate. But here's the third thing. A saint is known by how they separate. Paul gives another command. Look down at verse number seven. Here's the other command that he gives as part of this passage. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. And the word partakers, that means to be a partner with. Don't be a partner with them. Separate from them. Who is the them that Paul's referring to there in verse number seven? We'll go back to verse number five. He tells us, For this ye know, that no whoremonger or unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God. These are the people that Paul just talked about in verse number three. Same list of sins, really. Whoremonger, unclean person, covetous person. Paul just mentioned all of these. Paul says, don't be in partnership with these kind of people, but rather, you know, separate from them. Now, it doesn't say don't witness to them, because we certainly want to share the gospel with them, And we certainly want to pray for them. We certainly want to do that, but Paul says, he's saying, don't join the world in its evil. Don't partner with them. Don't be a partner with their wickedness. Why? Well, because look in verse number five, for this ye know, look at the word know there, present indicative active. This is what you continually know. At least you should know this. This is what you should know. that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater," look at the rest of it, have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. If this is the basic pattern of their life, guess what? They're not believers. They don't have any part in the kingdom of God. They're not going to heaven. They have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. If you know people that this is the pattern of their life, you can rest assured they're not believers. And somebody might say, well, are you sure about that? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Look what Paul says in verse number six. Let no man deceive you with vain words. There's gonna be people that say, oh, no, no, no. I'm a believer. I pray the prayer. I know where I'm going. They try to let people know that they're truly saved, but Paul says, look, let no man deceive you with vain words. They say, oh, I prayed a prayer, I went forward at an altar, and I remember the daytime and place. None of that is any evidence that you're a believer. The evidence of a believer is their life of faith, their life of obedience to Christ. They're not engaging in a continual pattern of these things. If anyone is engaged in that, Paul says, they're not going to heaven. Their profession is empty and vain. God's wrath falls upon them. Look in verse six again. For because of these things cometh a wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. God's wrath targets these. They're not children of God. They are children of disobedience. If you're a child of God, you're a child of obedient. Your pattern of life is obedient to Christ. but these are children of disobedience, therefore God's wrath will come upon them. And I meet people like this all the time who claim to be truly saved, and they live exactly like the world lives, they do all the things that the world does, and yet they hold on to a prayer that they prayed or some day when they made a decision, and that's the only thing they hold on to is an assurance of salvation, but again, that's not a biblical assurance of salvation. They live in perpetual disobedience. One time I was asked by a man to counsel his sister, and she was living a life that was really out of control. I mean, she had been married five times. She'd been arrested several times. She was living with a man who was not her husband. They got into an argument, and a fit of rage, she flew off the handle, and she tried to kill him. She tried to stab him with a knife. And then she was on a bus on her way to Atlantic City to gamble, but while she was on that bus, she got drunk and she got unruly, and the bus driver had to pull the bus over, she was so out of control, and got into a fight with this woman, trying to get her off the bus, and punched her in the eye, and left her there alongside the road. And he brought her to my office, and there she was sitting before me, black eye and all. Here, preacher, fix her. I began to share the gospel with her. You know what her response was? She immediately got offended. Are you under the assumption that I'm not a Christian? She said, I'm already saved. I said, really, really? How do you know that you're a Christian? Well, I'll have you know that my first husband was a preacher and a missionary. Really? Yes, she said. She said, I could take that Bible and show you a thing or two, preacher. I said, well, I'm sure you could, ma'am. In fact, there's a verse I'd like for you to help me out with. It's Galatians 5, and I begin to read. Now the works of the flesh which are manifest are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, hatred, variance, wrath. I went on through all the others. And these murders, drunkenness, revelings of such like, of which I tell you before, as I've told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. I said, man, can you help me out with verse 21 here? They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. I'm a little fuzzy on that. Can you help me out? She got the message. She didn't like what she was hearing. She ended up leaving. She didn't think she needed Christ. She thought that she was already saved. Paul says, look, let no one deceive you with those kind of empty words. People that live like that and do those things, they're not a part of the kingdom of God. Now, I'm not saying that a believer can't lapse into sin, but a believer can lapse into sin, but you mark it down, they're not going to be happy about it. They're going to be miserable and they're going to get their heart right. They're going to confess their sin. If not, God will chastise men and they will get right. But if you can live that way and be fine about it, The Bible says you're not one of God's children. That's not how a saint behaves. A saint is known by who they imitate, by what they tolerate, and by how they separate. Paul made a similar point. Let me close with this. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul said this, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Listen, Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now, if you stop reading there, it could be pretty discouraging, but listen to what Paul says in verse 11. And such were some of you. This is what you were, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, set apart, made holy. It's what you were, but when you got saved, you were washed by the blood of Christ. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Praise God. There is hope for any sinner. There's hope for anyone that comes to Christ with true repentance. God specializes in turning sinners into saints. That's what he does. So I would say to you today, if you haven't already, trust in Christ, repent of your sins, he will wash you, he will cleanse you from all of your sins, and he will make you his saint, a saint of God. Let's bow for prayer together. Father, thank you for the clear Word of God. Lord, help us to live up to the calling with which you have called us in salvation. Thank you, Lord, that in Christ, because of his death on the cross and his atoning sacrifice, that when we put our faith in Christ, we are declared holy. Lord, this boggles the mind that all of our sins were placed on Christ and all of his righteousness now put on our account. And in your sight, Father, you declare us holy because of Christ. And you now call us to live up to that holy calling, that holy position. Lord, we need your grace to help us to behave like saints and glorify you in this world. That when people see Christ in us, when they see the righteousness of Christ being lived out in our life, we can say it's not of us. It's not of us. It's all of Christ. It's what he has done in and through me. Grant us, Lord, that we be all that you call us to be through the power of your Holy Spirit. And with heads bowed and eyes closed, let me just ask, if you're here today and you've never put your faith in Christ, I want to invite you to do that right now. Right now, you can be a saint of God. You can have all of your sins forgiven. You can be washed and cleansed because of the blood of Christ. And you could be forgiven and have eternal life if you reach out in faith and say, Jesus, save me. Save me, Lord Jesus. Is that your prayer this morning? Just reach out and just tell the Lord that right where you are. Lord, save me. Save me. And if you do that, let us know. We want to help you along in your Christian walk. Father, bless your word to every hearing heart here today. We pray in Jesus' name.